Beefing up Basic

[soccermark23]

Beefing up basic

To prepare airmen for combat, tougher BMT for new recruits
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 26, 2008 9:09:11 EDT

Basic military training just got longer, and the man in charge says the next crop of recruits will be the toughest and most combat-ready the Air Force has ever produced.

These airmen will be the first of a new breed, said Col. Edward Westermann, commander of the 737th Training Group at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

They will be the first class to go through the newly revamped BMT course. They start training Nov. 3, and when they graduate 8½ weeks later, they will have defended their base against air assaults and surprise chemical attacks, navigated a trail littered with roadside bombs, and experienced the austerity of a deployed environment — all without leaving the confines of Lackland.

BMT is two weeks longer than the previous six-week course. The bulk of that extra training time will focus on expeditionary skills — handling, firing and caring for an M16, self-aid and buddy care, chemical warfare, and base defense. Before sewing on their first stripes, airmen will know what it’s like to lug around a heavy rifle while wearing chemical gear, sleep on cots in tents and survive on Meals, Ready-to-Eat — experiences recruits got only a taste of before.

“This is the biggest transformation in BMT in the last 50 years,” Westermann said. “It’s going to be mentally challenging, psychologically challenging and physically challenging.”
Surviving the BEAST

The structure of the new BMT is meant to mirror an Air Expeditionary Force cycle, with pre-deployment, deployment and post-deployment phases.

The pre-deployment phase is the longest, consuming the first five weeks of the course.

What has not changed is the introductory week zero and week one, in which airmen in-process, get assigned gear, meet their training instructors, get assigned to training flights and learn basic military skills such as military drill and ceremony, customs and courtesies, and dormitory setup.

The next three weeks — about a week more than before — will be spent primarily developing expeditionary skills and reinforcing the military skills training of the first week.

Week two covers weapons handling and maintenance, integrated base defense, tactical movement, firing positions and force protection. Week three focuses on self-aid and buddy care. In week four, trainees learn to counter threats such as terrorism, biological and chemical weapons and security breaches and go through the BMT obstacle course. Week five, the final week of the pre-deployment phase, introduces trainees to the code of conduct, combat arms training and maintenance, fighting with a pugil stick, basic leadership and mental preparation for combat.

But the centerpiece of the new BMT is the BEAST, a week spent in Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training.

For six weeks, the entire class of more than 800 airmen heads to a new field training site on the Medina Annex at the west end of Lackland.

The BEAST site consists of four camps, each with 10 green canvas tents. Each camp is a self-contained unit responsible for operating and defending itself.

“It’s a simulated deployed environment,” Westermann said.

“We’ll be sending these young men and women out to what is essentially a Camp Victory, [Iraq], Camp Phoenix, [Afghanistan, and] they’ll be applying things like their chem warfare training [and] their self-aid and buddy care.

“It’s going to actually place them in a five-day deployment environment.”

On the first day of BEAST, a Monday, recruits will refresh the expeditionary skills they already learned. On Tuesday through Friday, they will be in an expeditionary exercise in which they live and work as if they were at a forward operating base in the Middle East. Until now, recruits spent two hours in an expeditionary exercise.

The airmen will sleep in their tents and eat MREs, except for one hot meal a day served at a dining facility.

They’ll rise each morning at 4:45 a.m., receive an intelligence briefing on the threat environment, and spend the rest of the day responding to threats and contingencies.

“For example, an air attack has just taken place,” Westermann explained. “These are your rules of engagement. This person has been injured, showing these symptoms. What do you do as a group? What do we need to do to take care of our wingman here? What do we need to do to take care of our camp, the integrated defense aspect of it?

“Then the threat might change to a ground attack four hours later or a different kind of threat. What they’re expected to do is ... respond appropriately to that threat.”

BMT instructors and airmen from the 3E9 emergency management career field will serve as an aggressor force, and attacks can take place any time, day or night. Trainees will stand two-hour watches to guard the camp.

The BEAST site includes a 1.5-mile improvised explosive device trail littered with simulated roadside bombs and a mock airstrip. Airmen will learn to spot IEDs and then use the trail in training scenarios.

For instance, under one scenario, Westermann said, the airmen will have to safely navigate the IED trail to reach and secure the airstrip so they can establish resupply and evacuate their wounded.

“This is as realistic training as we can get here at BMT,” he said. “This mirrors, in real terms, the kinds of threats and challenges that our folks face downrange.”

Week seven will focus on post-deployment training — classroom instruction about the difficulties service members might face when they get home, such as financial management, family issues and alcohol abuse. Trainees also learn about Air Force history and heritage.

“The hope is they leave here sensitized to those issues,” Westermann said. “It’s … establishing positive habits that they’re going to take from BMT to tech training and then on into the combatant commands.”

The eighth and final week of training is graduation week. The newly minted airmen will be issued their dress blues, take a final written test, practice for the graduation parade and find out what career fields they’ll be entering.
Preparing for the war zones

Westermann said the new course, two years in the making, acknowledges airmen are on the front lines and must be prepared to fight.

There have been incremental changes during the past several years to better prepare airmen for duty in the war zones, such as issuing all airmen a training M16 on their first day. But this is the first wholesale redesign of the course since the wars began.

“We have an expeditionary force in which we have over 6,000 airmen ... downrange doing missions outside the wire,” Westermann said. “We need to continue this idea of seeing ourselves ... as warrior airmen.”

The longer training and greater focus on expeditionary skills also put the Air Force more in line with the other services. Army basic training is nine weeks, with a weeklong field training exercise. The Navy course is eight weeks, with a weeklong exercise called “battle stations.” Marines have the longest basic, at a little more than 12 weeks with a week of field training.

Westermann said he and his team designed the new BMT to be rigorous, but they do not expect it will lead to a high wash-out rate. The attrition rate for BMT stands at 8.2 percent.

Field and combat skills training have always been the most popular parts of the course among students, he said.

“This is exactly why many of them want to be in the Air Force, why they want to be in the military,” he said. “My expectation is that when we send them out to the BEAST site, ... this is going to be a motivational experience for them.”

Westermann said he and his instructors will monitor the course to make sure the training is having the desired effect. But the verdict will be out on the new BMT until the new airmen graduate into the operational Air Force and begin to deploy to the war zones.

“The real acid test for the success of this program will be when we get reports back from combatant commanders saying the folks you’re sending us ... are more capable and better trained to face those challenges that they have downrange,” he said.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/20..._basic_102608/

It's good to see this finally being implemented by the Air Force. I think it will help new Airmen from the outset by giving them a broader skill set which will most likely be called into action early on in their careers.

[DaveIn3D]

such as issuing all airmen a training M16 on their first day.

Is this a real rifle or a rubber rifle? Can they break it down and clean it every night? Do they shoot it at the range?...

Speaking of the range...

Are they ever going to actually teach Airman how to shoot? The article didnt address any changes in the range program and I remember in my day the range being done in a whopping 12 hours. Your morning was how to aim (inside a classroom) and your afternoon was shooting. There were no wind calls, adjusting of sights, or proper firing techniques. I was told to point and shoot all while trying to hide behind some wood. I didnt recieve any actual rifle training until almost 3 years later in Germany.

Its nice that they are making boot longer for them, but if you dont teach fundamental marksmanship, they are still sitting ducks.

One final point...I was discussing this with some collegues of mine...An USAF friend of mine was talking about how the Air Force has some pretty high-speed fellas. (CCT,TACP,EOD,PJ..ETC).He said that these guys show that the Air Force can hold its own in combat. He was right in assuming that these were some of the best shots in the military. But these guys only make up a very small percentage of the Air Force. I prefer my Marine Corps where 100% of the Marines know how to shoot and know basic infantry tactics (i.e. staying alive tactics) rather than the Air Force where you are pretty much dead if you are not one of those elite fields. NOw I know there are plenty of Airman who have seen combat and survived who are not in one of the mentioned fields, but a vast majority of the USAF has not seen combat nor would do any good if faced with such a situation. The Air Force, even with this 'new and improved' training is still a 'within the fenceline' force. Keep the training to 6 weeks. Let the young men who have to go outside the wire learn it in their follow-on schools. Stop wasting money trying to make Airmen feel like warriors. If they wanted to feel like a warrior, they would have joined the Army or Marines. They joined the Air Force for a reason and chances are it wasn't to kill people.

-3D

[Billyd]

3D,

Knowing a bit of your history, I know that you were disappointed about your experiences in AF blue.

Yes, the AF is PRIMARILY an inside the wire force. I believe that this new training will equip our airmen, if only in a small way, to defend themselves and their base if necessary.

I remember from my days in BMT, weapons training was called familiarization and never proclaimed to be anything else. Did I feel like I was able to defend the perimeter? No, but that came with experience and training that I received after reporting to my first duty assignment. I am sure that in Marine Recruit Training, you learned the basics of small unit tactics (fire team, squad, etc), but when you reported for duty, you learned the specifics for your current unit. And I think it is safe to say that the training NCO there built upon what you learned at whatever Recruit Depot you went to.

[DaveIn3D]

I am not really disappointed with my Air Force career as much as I am impressed with how the rest of the military works in comparison.

I do like how the Air Force is getting with the times and increasing its chem-war abilities. They should come teach the Marines their techniques because the Corps is under the assumption that we are not threatened by chemical weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. You hit the gas chamber once a year and you get to wear the MOPP gear less than that. Its going to be a shame when the chemical weapons that the insugents have in iraq and afghanistan are brought into play and only the Air Froce is left alive.....

-3D

P.S. I hope no one takes me seriously. I was just highlighting some more useless USAF training.

[Woody]

Good idea for the air force .Still wont stop the laughter of real military units but then nothing would.

[ang1sgt]

Just as we know that there are Airman that can't hit the broad side of a Barn, I've seen a Marine or two that can't either. Marines are not the be all that everyone thinks. I have a new Hunting Coat still in my closet from 1980 when I went hunting for the first time after I came home from England. A Marine cousin of mine put a slug through that new Blaze Orange Coat, and I keep it as a memory NEVER to go hunting with him ever again. I've not been back hunting since except for those times that I go stalking and tracking using a camera.

I always thought it was the duty and responsibility of the individual to improve their Combat and Survival skills. I always saw to it that I took my training seriously enough that I would have extra time to fire weapons by being on the Base Marksmanship Teams for Pistol and Rifles. While I might have not been one of the best, I was good and hit what I aimed for.

Chem Warfare is something that I took very seriously being a Weapons Troop. The understanding of what "WE" were loading on an aircraft and what could happen if a mistake were made were at the forefront of my mind every day, whether it was a conventional weapon, Chemical, or Nuclear Weapon.

Granted, I was not as well trained as an SF, EOD, PJ, ect... But I took personal responsibility and took the time to prepare myself.

[DaveIn3D]

Top,

You make a good point but make one serious error. The military is a team sport. You can be individually good all you want, but when the merde hits the fan, you had better hope your fellow Airmen are as trained as you are. You might have known a few Marines that couldnt shoot, but I am willing to bet that they are the exception in their units rather than the rule.

-3D

[ang1sgt]

Point taken and understood 3D. In my situation, I wanted to ensure that I was never EVER the weak link. I know few in the USAF that feel the same way. I was lucky enough to serve with many that felt the same way, and were close friends because of those desires. The person I speak of while a Marine in name only, is the worst example I've ever seen, and to see him now in his 50's it is a damn shame. We all grow old, we all slow down, but sloth and gluttony shouldn't be in the cards for any person.

Soap Box Mode off...

[soccermark23]

I'll be happy with new guys coming back and actually understanding the concepts of Chemical Warfare, and more specifically PAR Team duties. We have been having constant exercises lately, because of some upcoming inspections, and I have the lovely duty of running PAR Teams for the second shift in my shop. It sucks having half the people give me this look that says, "Um what's that?" New troops coming back with a better understanding and more training on this would make things go much more smoothly.

[DaveIn3D]

Originally Posted by soccermark23

I'll be happy with new guys coming back and actually understanding the concepts of Chemical Warfare, and more specifically PAR Team duties. We have been having constant exercises lately, because of some upcoming inspections, and I have the lovely duty of running PAR Teams for the second shift in my shop. It sucks having half the people give me this look that says, "Um what's that?" New troops coming back with a better understanding and more training on this would make things go much more smoothly.

This is another item I have issue with. The USAF continues to waste exercise time on stuff that doesnt apply to the battlefields we are currently fighting on. You would think that if the Marines arent doing it and the Army isnt doing much of it, then the Air Force would take a hint. It isnt like the Corps is planning on sacrificing its troops any time soon. There are many other things that should take priority over NBC training. Grading units based on their responses to situations that dont apply is shenanigans!

-3D