Developing Mach-21 Airmen

A deep dive inside the Language Enabled Airmen Program is the focus of the latest episode of "The Air Force Starts Here," released Feb. 11, 2020. Senior Airman Francisco Melendez from the Air University public affairs team sat down with the director of the Air Force Language and Culture Center, Howard Ward, as well as Capt. Christopher Price, a LEAP scholar, to about the AFCLC’s flagship language program focused on cross-cultural communication. Ward details how the LEAP program spans an Airman’s entire career, including both building and maintaining a working proficiency in a foreign language that allows them to think globally and use their skills as a force multiplier. Ward also talks to who is eligible for the program and dispels the myth that LEAP is an interpreter program. Price details how he came to be in the LEAP program and his passion for it, as well as talks about his travels while in the program.

Air Education and Training Command’s emphasis on the use of technology to aggressively and cost-effectively modernize education and training is the focus of the latest episode of "The Air Force Starts Here." Dan Hawkins from the AETC Public Affairs team sits down with Capt. Tyler Hoff, an Air Force basic military training flight commander from the 321st Training Squadron about the issuance of tablet computers to trainees at BMT as part of a six-month Cooperative Research and Development Agreement beta test designed to test adaptive and personalized learning in the BMT setting. Hoff talks about the pilot program and its goals to assess learning outcomes, value and return on investment through the use of an adaptive learning platform for the overall BMT mission.

On this second podcast of 2020, Jennifer Gonzalez from our AETC Public Affairs team sat down with Maj. Gen. Craig Wills, the commander of 19th Air Force and responsible for everything pilot training. One of the big topics talked about on the pod is the operational waiver process for height, which has been a major focus area for Gen Wills and the 19th team. With the operational safety of everyone involved as priority one when it comes to granting waivers, Wills discusses how a team of experts are part of the process and talks to the process and why you shouldn’t let a website stop you from applying for a waiver.

On this second podcast of 2020, Jennifer Gonzalez from the AETC Public Affairs team sat down with Maj. Gen. Craig Wills, 19th Air Force commander responsible for pilot training. One of the big topics talked about on the pod is the operational waiver process for height, which has been a major focus area for Gen Wills and the 19th team. With the operational safety of everyone involved as priority #1 when it comes to waivers, Wills explains how a team of experts are part of the process and talks to the process and why you shouldn’t let a website stop you from applying for a waiver.

New year, new name, same great content on the latest episode of Air Education and Training Command’s podcast series. On episode 22 of the renamed “The Air Force Starts Here” podcast, Col. Erica Rabe and David Crabtree from Headquarters Air Force A1 talk about talent management initiatives being worked in conjunction with total force development. Rabe and Crabtree discuss current talent management strategy, designed to capture total force requirements and drive deliberate management that enables diversity and quality of the Air Force’s collective expertise. They also go in depth on many programs regarding talent management for officers, enlisted and civilian personnel. Topics on the officer side include IDE/SDE programs, while enlisted programs include discussed include performance reports and promotion programs, as well as step promotions. Crabtree also talks to the expanded talent management programs for civilians at the strategic, operational and tactical levels as well, including a refreshed OPM curric

Welcome to episode #21 of Developing Mach-21 Airmen! In this episode, we’re featuring the audio from a recent Facebook Town Hall with the AETC Command Team where we sat down with Lt. Gen. Brad Webb and Chief Master Sgt. Juliet Gudgel and talked about a host of topics, including the First Command’s new mission, vision, and priorities. We also in depth in each of the four priority areas, which align with the letters of AETC: Advance Force Development Enhance Lethality & Readiness Transform the Way We Learn Cultivate an Environment of Excellence We also took some questions from the viewers, including one asking for Lt. Gen. Webb’s favorite song to play on the guitar. Listen to find out.

Episode 20 of the pod has Maj. Lindsey Torres, the Special Warfare Training Wing’s lead performance dietitian, sitting down with us talking about how the wing is using a holistic approach to nutrition education and training that will help the readiness of the Air Force’s future Special Warfare Airmen, enabling them to ultimately perform better across the length of their careers.  Torres speaks to how the nutrition plan has evolved over time at the wing,  as well as what it actually looks like in terms of the execution, including hydration, on a daily basis to build those healthy habits that will stay with the trainees long after they leave the formal training pipeline.

Welcome to episode #19 of Developing Mach-21 Airmen! In this episode, we have a guest interviewer learning more about the "Classroom of the Future" that is used at the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, or IAAFA: 1st. Lt. Kayshel Trudell, a public affairs officer currently at the 37th Training Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. In this episode, Trudell sits down with Lt. Col. Isaac Davidson, the IAAFA commandant, and Staff Sgt. Hugo Garza Salas, a Classroom of the Future cyber instructor at IAAFA. They talk about how the Classroom of the Future provides the tools and technology to optimize and streamline learning. the Classroom of the Future pushes Force development along the Continuum of Learning by flipping the teaching model to a learner-focus approach that dramatically shortens students’ learning curve and allows for hands-on experimental learning that is focused on solving real-world problems in a classroom setting that can immediately be implemented in the field. They also talk about how the relat

Welcome to episode #18 of the Developing Mach-21 Airmen podcast! In this pod, Captain Kyle Palko chats with 2nd Lt. Robert Guest about Project Nexus, an AETC Integrated Technology Detachment and AFWERX-Austin collaboration that is testing one way to fuel technology problem-solving efforts for Airmen across the Air Force. Capt. Palko, the Project NEXUS project manager, talks about the three test groups of Airmen, or cohorts. All Airmen are being taught software design by contracted, tech-bootcamp-style companies. Each Airman also focuses on either data science, software design, or user experience/user interface design. Capt. Palko goes in-depth on the types of problems that Project Nexus is aiming to solve. Some are specific, like one cohort’s capstone project to create a mobile app for instructor pilots to grade students in-flight. Others are more about changing culture and enabling Airmen to solve problems using data science and software organically, at their home units, aligning with larger Air Force goals

Episode #17 of the pod features Lt. Col. Jamie Wiley and Vincent Villanueva, the director and deputy respectively, from the HQ AETC Occupational Competencies Branch, talking about their develop competency-based learning models across the Air Force’s 266 career fields. The competencies, which combine the knowledge and skills needed to complete a task with the behaviors and other skills, such as critical thinking, stress management, teamwork or leadership, help lay the foundation for force development, tying directly into the profession of arms and making Airmen more well-rounded. Additionally, career fields can use these competencies to give them time back as part of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein’s focus on revitalizing squadrons.

On the pod, Chief Master Sgt. Steve West, Air Force Handbook 1 program manager at Air Education and Training Command's Studies and Analysis Squadron, discusses the AFH1 phone application intended for both professional development and promotion testing prep. Chief West talks about the learning tools inside the app, as well as resources and saved content capabilities of the app, which is available on both iOS and Android at no cost to Airmen.

On this episode, Lt. Col. Eric Frahm, director of the AETC Integrated Technology Detachment up at the Capital Factory in Austin, Texas, joins the show, talking about innovation in the multi-domain operational environment, technology, and Learning Next amongst other topics. During the conversation, Lt. Col. Frahm talks about his role at the ATID helping lay down the infrastructure, tools and resources that teams need to innovate inside their work environment, as well as how the ATID works in conjunction with numerous other innovation entities to include the AETC staff and innovation ecosystem. Lt. Col. Frahm also goes in depth about the awesome partnership between AETC and the Air Force Research Laboratory to support the emerging innovation mission.

On the pod, Senior Airman Francisco Melendez from the Air University public affairs team sits down with Tech. Sgt. Joshua Steward and Senior Master Sgt. Markesha Crawford from the Barnes Center at AU to talk about the Enlisted Professional Military Education Instructor Course, or EPMEIC. Topics include what the course is & how it prepares Airmen to become instructors and get comfortable facilitating and teaching in the classroom, along with the curriculum development process. Additionally, Crawford talks to her role as the superintendent of the team that develops the curriculum across enlisted PME, the continuum of learning & how people grow through education in their life, and more!

On the pod, Air Education and Training Command public affairs sits down with the commander, Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast, talking through the last two years and what has stuck out to him about the recruit, train, and educate enterprise. Topics include how the command has executed its strategic goals, including flipping the headquaerters organizational structure; breaking long-held, industrial-aged paradigms; innovation; and the general's battle cry to the Airmen of AETC as he prepares to hand the guidon to Lt. Gen. Brad Webb July 26, 2019.

Dr. Kristen Lewis from the 381st Training Group at Vandenburg AFB, Calif., talks about the research behind student-centered learning in communities of practice, which is meant to maximize the learning potential of students by focusing on the needs of individual students. Topics include the research behind the method; it's components and implementation; how it breaks long-held, industrial age paradigms in training; and how to win over the skeptics!

On the pod, released June 10, Dr. Christine Covas-Smith from the Headquarters, AETC Future Environments division, discusses in-depth where the command needs to head in terms of learning in the future and why we have to consider the trends now in order to shape learning in 2030. Topics include the proliferation of artificial intelligence, the use of virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as mixed reality, in learning, as well as the increase in open-source environments. Other topics include collaborative learning trends, talking directly to what classrooms will look like, team cognition, as well as performance optimized teams and the science of game-based learning.

In this episode, we visit the Security Forces Academy at Lackland AFB and sit down with Capt. Jeremiah Baxter, officer in charge of the Security Forces Apprentice course, Capt. Zachary Watkins, officer in charge of Security Forces Officer Technical Training, Senior Master Sgt. Brandan King, 343d Training Squadron operations superintendent, and Master Sgt. Henry Crook. We talk about the biggest recent change to Security Forces initial skills training: integrating officers and enlisted trainees together. We also discuss ways they are trying to break industrial-age training paradigms by focusing more on holistic leadership and problem-solving to better teach the trainees in the context of their future missions. We also talk about how technology (MILO firearms simulator, VR and AFWERX) are adding to Security Forces training in order to educate more lethal and ready defenders.

In this episode, James Rumfelt from the 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs office at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, talks with two senior NCOs from the 365th Training Squadron about breaking industrial-age paradigms in Air Force technical training. Master Sgt. Brion Kennedy, the avionics fundamentals flight chief, and Master Sgt. James Churchill, the heavy avionics flight chief, discuss various ways they are working to break those long-held paradigms. One example is breaking the paradigm that "time is the constant." Instead of focusing on an exact number of days for graduation, focusing on the competence-level at graduation. This resulted in a very prepared Air National Guard Airman graduating from the avionics fundamentals and electronic warfare courses in a fraction of the time it would normally take. They also talk about some ways they can make the training more learner-centric: wether it's putting unclassified training materials online for all the students to access, or giving all students an iPad so they

In the episode, Master Sgt. Ryan Crane from the 81st Training Wing Public Affairs office at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., sits down with Tech. Sgt. Victoria Monzon, a military training leader instructor with the 81st Training Support Squadron at Keesler, to tell her personal story of resilience, hardship, overcoming adversity and love of the Air Force. Born and raised in Guatemala, Monzon talks specifically about how she came to the Air Force and struggled with various situations in her life. From there, Monzan goes in-depth on her journey from thinking she was going to get out of the Air Force to finding herself as a military training leader ensuring our Airman are lethal and ready to tackle any mission.

In the episode, Master Sgt. Bryan Dudley, the emergency manager training flight chief for the 368th Training Squadron at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and a detachment of the 82nd Training Wing based at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, talk all things related to innovation and the future shaping of the learning environment. Dudley goes in-depth on the curriculum development process the 368th TRS used to reimagine what their initial skills training course looks like, in fact leading to a revamp the emergency management career field didn’t envision when they started!