Now The 306th Flying Training Group
The US Air Force Academy's
airmanship operations realigned under the Air Education and
Training Command as the newly named 306th Flying Training Group on
Oct. 1.
The operations are elective courses at the academy and are aimed
at giving cadets firsthand knowledge and understanding of the
flight environment.
"Airmanship operations allow them to develop an 'airsense,'"
said Alan Becker, the AETC plans and programs project officer and
1977 academy graduate.
Cadets can enroll in a soaring course, learn to fly a sailplane,
or do free-fall parachuting to earn their basic military parachute
jump wings. Cadets also have the chance to become instructors in
various aviation and airmanship programs.
The realignment should be fairly transparent to the rest of the
Air Force, Becker said. "It's mostly paperwork and transfer of
responsibilities."
The assets, including AETC people already at the academy, will
remain in place.
"What will change is a few more folks at AETC and 19th Air Force
headquarters focusing their attention on the academy," Becker
said.
The realignment allows the academy to capitalize on AETC's
experiences.
"The change comes … to form a big brother partnership,"
Becker said. "The academy has successfully run airmanship
operations for more than 30 years. By realigning the management
… under AETC's flying training experts, the academy can now
devote more time and focus on the leadership and training of
cadets."
"It just makes sense to align the (operations) under these
functional experts," said Lt. Col. Kyle Lampela, 34th Operations
Support Squadron commander at the academy.
"We're the trainers of the Air Force," said Col. Bryon Mills,
AETC plans and programs division chief. AETC people have extensive
expertise in what works and what does not work in training,
maintenance, aircraft acquisition and managing day-to-day
operations.
AETC, however, will not be accomplishing this new initiative
alone.
The operations at the academy will be AETC's to fund and manage,
but the airfield real estate remains at the academy, Colonel Mills
said. Maintaining the facilities will be the academy's job, but
AETC people will be running them.
"The whole purpose of the airmanship program is leadership
through flying," Colonel Mills said. "So, we end up basically
sharing a mission with the academy. Although the academy is
providing us support to run the facilities, we are, in-turn,
providing support back to them."
The full transformation will not be immediate. It may take up to
two years, said Becker, before the transition is complete.
"There are (a lot) of little things to get right -- network
connectivity, cadet management systems, syllabi. … We're
peeling back the layers of the onion," he said. "We can't do it too
quickly or we'll miss something very important."
The 306th FTG's organizational structure will mirror that of
other geographically separated units, like the 479th FTG at Moody
Air Force Base (GA). The 306th FTG will report directly to Maj.
Gen. Edward R. "Buster" Ellis, 19th Air Force commander.
(ANN salutes by 1st Lt. Elaine M. Larson, Air Education and
Training Command Public Affairs)