Not too many people assume an Airman Basic can identify the components of an M-16, field-strip, clean, and reassemble the standard rifle with ease. Yet that’s exactly what’s about to happen with basic training graduates. Air Education and Training Command plans to issue every basic trainee, beginning in November, a training replica M-16 on his or her first day at Lackland AFB, Tex. It’s just one more step the service is taking to better prepare new airmen for expeditionary force deployments. Already, says MSgt. Janice Allen, the 321st TRS section superintendent, “We are seeing airmen with a better skill set and capacity to deploy.”
President Donald Trump on July 4 signed into law $150 billion in defense funds as part of the tax-and-spending package known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” after congressional Republicans approved the legislation in narrow, drawn-out votes earlier this week.
