Posted on 04/24/2006 10:47:05 AM PDT by radar101
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE - When a group of U.S. Air Force commanders visited Iraq two years ago, they made some disturbing observations as they watched enlisted airmen working in the war zone.
Many lacked basic combat skills and instincts. Some didn't know how to handle and load their weapons. A few even had their guns taken away as a safety precaution.
Within months, the high command mandated an overhaul of Air Force basic military training, which has been conducted here since 1942. Officials now say they've imposed the most dramatic changes in 60 years in the training's tone and curriculum.
Chief among them is a new, time-consuming emphasis on "warrior ethos," making every airmen capable of self defense in a service with a reputation for being removed from the front lines. The 38,000 trainees per year now spend less time learning to fold T-shirts so they can spend more time learning to wage war
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
About time!
The AF isn't as anything as the Marines or the Army (or the Navy, for that matter)
Sorry to say....
I went through in 1968 and we had more time on both than that..Although we never got to the stage of breaking down the rifles. I have an SP-1 almost just like the AF M-16 I used (except for the auto-part). No forward assist or shell deflector.
I'm glad to see them take it up a notch or two. Them little Muslim fellers can be deadly almost anywhere......
I see AF folk every day who fly desks. They are all practicing with M16s these days.
When I was in the Navy, we called them the "Air Farce", because everyone knew they were not the real military.........
My daughter flies a desk for Air Force intel, and she'll be the first to say that they needed more combat training (she's a deadly knife-thrower and a wicked shooter - but she was trained at home). Now she says they are really clamping down on all the combat arts and PT, and she's glad.
I'm proud of mommy's little Airman!!
Did you guys fire the Daisy Shadow Plus or the Crosman Pumpmaster?
(Who knew the Air Force had rifles?)
When I told my next door neighbor, a retired Marine WO, what happened he literally put me in his car and drove me to the Marine recruiters office.
That guy saved my life....
L
In 1967-1968 the air force did not allow their troops in Danang (other than the air police on duty) to be armed at all.
So what's new 40 years later (they don't trust them with weapoons.
1968 for me as well but at Amarillo AFB. Not much M-1 or M-16 training as I recall but being an old east Texas squirrel hunter, I wonder how much it could have helped.
Muleteam1
Beyond that, we were told we didn't need to how to disassemble the M-16 (some of the training rifles were stamped Colt AR-15, I presume part of the original lot purchased by Gen. LeMay) unless we went on to Security Police training.
"A few even had their guns taken away as a safety precaution."
chortle...that's awfully drastic...
"I still think that the Air Force isn't as dangerous as the Army or Marines," Reed said."
She seems like a sweet little girl, a little naive perhaps.
You are right, but we (I) trained for a different mission. I was an air traffic controller and deployed to Oman during the first Gulf War. Because of my training I, and the people who worked for me, did an excellent job working more aircraft than any of us had ever seen. That being said, if I was at a base that was under attack by enemy ground forces I would have been next to useless. No training in war fighting skills. The AF is not lacking in ability, just training.
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