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Air Force chief of staff: Pilots getting half the training they need
Phillip Swarts, Air Force Times 5:03 a.m. EDT August 14, 2016
Air Force pilots today are receiving about half the home-station training that new Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said he received when he was a captain flying F-16s.
“On average I would go to three flag exercises a year, plus I would do a rotation with the National Training Center, with the Army, and that would be a normal battle rhythm,” Goldfein said Wednesday during his ‘State of the Air Force’ briefing at the Pentagon with Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James.
“Today’s pilot, based on the size of the force, the age of the force, and continuing op tempo demand in Central Command, is getting about half of that,” he said. “We’re able to maintain a higher state of readiness forward, where the combat commanders need it, but the bill payer is home station.”
Goldfein, who’s been in the top job for a month, said one of his first priorities is reducing the strain placed on airmen and allowing them more time to spend at home for both training and family.
In a public letter to airmen published on the Air Force website Tuesday, Goldfein wrote that “squadrons have been asked to bear the brunt of an incredible deployment tempo and manpower shortages which have had a direct impact on readiness in our warfighting missions.”
“The resultant effect of these challenges is we have degraded the core fighting unit of our Air Force — the place where Airmen live, breathe and grow, where we generate combat capability, and where our culture resides: the squadron.”
At the Pentagon Wednesday, Goldfein pointed to his own experience fighting in Desert Storm as a reason the training is so critical.
“That all played out for me personally on the first night of the first day of Desert Storm when I, along with all the rest of my fellow fighter pilots, got into combat for the first time,” he said.
“Our leader at the time was a combat veteran from Vietnam, and he was the only one in the formation who had ever flown in combat. The rest of us were green and so we were a little uncertain about how we were going to perform,” Goldfein said. “I remember him calling out, like it was a walk in the park, ‘Oh there’s Triple A, anti-aircraft fire,' and we all stared at it. He says, 'There’s a surface-to-air missile,' and we all just stared at it.”
Goldfein’s unit even watched an enemy MiG-29 get shot down that night.
“I saw an aircraft hit the dirt, and I thought, ‘Well, I have not seen that before,’ ” he said.
“But here’s what I had seen,” Goldfein added, stressing the importance of training. “Every radio call, every visual in the formation, everything I saw, I realized I’d seen it all before at Nellis [Air Force Base, Nevada]. This is just like Red Flag. At that moment, I can tell you the confidence that came over my cockpit and so many others, that says, ‘Okay, we can do this. We know how to do this,’ And we went in, and we destroyed the target.”
The Air Force is working along several avenues to reduce the strain on airmen, particularly pilots and their support squadrons, and to get them more time at home station. These include boosting the the overall size of the force, eliminating burdensome extra duties, and boosting training squadrons.
"In my experience, readiness and morale are inextricably linked," Goldfein wrote in his letter to airmen.
In the weeks leading up to the Air Force Association's September convention, Goldfein wrote, he is looking forward to a "robust discussion" about how to revitalize squadrons.
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/...aining-they-need/88532884/?platform=hootsuite
Air Force chief of staff: Pilots getting half the training they need
Phillip Swarts, Air Force Times 5:03 a.m. EDT August 14, 2016
Air Force pilots today are receiving about half the home-station training that new Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said he received when he was a captain flying F-16s.
“On average I would go to three flag exercises a year, plus I would do a rotation with the National Training Center, with the Army, and that would be a normal battle rhythm,” Goldfein said Wednesday during his ‘State of the Air Force’ briefing at the Pentagon with Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James.
“Today’s pilot, based on the size of the force, the age of the force, and continuing op tempo demand in Central Command, is getting about half of that,” he said. “We’re able to maintain a higher state of readiness forward, where the combat commanders need it, but the bill payer is home station.”
Goldfein, who’s been in the top job for a month, said one of his first priorities is reducing the strain placed on airmen and allowing them more time to spend at home for both training and family.
In a public letter to airmen published on the Air Force website Tuesday, Goldfein wrote that “squadrons have been asked to bear the brunt of an incredible deployment tempo and manpower shortages which have had a direct impact on readiness in our warfighting missions.”
“The resultant effect of these challenges is we have degraded the core fighting unit of our Air Force — the place where Airmen live, breathe and grow, where we generate combat capability, and where our culture resides: the squadron.”
At the Pentagon Wednesday, Goldfein pointed to his own experience fighting in Desert Storm as a reason the training is so critical.
“That all played out for me personally on the first night of the first day of Desert Storm when I, along with all the rest of my fellow fighter pilots, got into combat for the first time,” he said.
“Our leader at the time was a combat veteran from Vietnam, and he was the only one in the formation who had ever flown in combat. The rest of us were green and so we were a little uncertain about how we were going to perform,” Goldfein said. “I remember him calling out, like it was a walk in the park, ‘Oh there’s Triple A, anti-aircraft fire,' and we all stared at it. He says, 'There’s a surface-to-air missile,' and we all just stared at it.”
Goldfein’s unit even watched an enemy MiG-29 get shot down that night.
“I saw an aircraft hit the dirt, and I thought, ‘Well, I have not seen that before,’ ” he said.
“But here’s what I had seen,” Goldfein added, stressing the importance of training. “Every radio call, every visual in the formation, everything I saw, I realized I’d seen it all before at Nellis [Air Force Base, Nevada]. This is just like Red Flag. At that moment, I can tell you the confidence that came over my cockpit and so many others, that says, ‘Okay, we can do this. We know how to do this,’ And we went in, and we destroyed the target.”
The Air Force is working along several avenues to reduce the strain on airmen, particularly pilots and their support squadrons, and to get them more time at home station. These include boosting the the overall size of the force, eliminating burdensome extra duties, and boosting training squadrons.
"In my experience, readiness and morale are inextricably linked," Goldfein wrote in his letter to airmen.
In the weeks leading up to the Air Force Association's September convention, Goldfein wrote, he is looking forward to a "robust discussion" about how to revitalize squadrons.