Increase in airmen requires more instructors

[unhappycamper]

Airman 1st Class Tyler Hollis and Airman Basic Michale Wonnell, right, study while waiting their turn during security forces technical training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. A shortage of 205 tech school instructors will not be filled until May.


Increase in airmen requires more instructors
By Erik Holmes - [e-mail]
Posted : Thursday Jan 8, 2009 14:01:48 EST

Air Education and Training Command is putting on a full-court press to train about 4,000 more new enlisted airmen this fiscal year than officials were expecting to deal with.

The influx of new airmen — part of a plan to increase the size of Air Force by about 10,000 airmen during the next two years — is already under way. The service has grown by more than 1,200 airmen since fiscal 2009 began Oct. 1.

But 2nd Air Force, AETC’s non-flight training arm, faces a shortage of about 400 basic military training and technical training instructors in the short term, forcing it to take drastic steps to train the new airmen.

Until 2nd Air Force can produce more instructors, the unit, headquartered at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., will increase classroom and training unit size, extend the tours of some instructors, bring back former instructors, ask administrative staff to step into the classroom and bring in Reserve augmentees to fill the remaining gaps.

Maj. Gen. Alfred Flowers, 2nd Air Force commander, said the situation can be overcome.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/01/airforce_plusup_010809/%2e