Closing the One-Room Schoolhouse

Air Force Global Strike Command is changing the training paradigm at all three of its missile bases. The series of incremental block changes, which were first beta-tested at Minot AFB, N.D., started rolling out to the missile wings at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., and Malmstrom AFB, Mont., in December, AFGSC boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson told Air Force Magazine. Among the changes, the command has increased manning, moved instructors back into the squadrons, and added mid-level supervisors back to the squadron, said Wilson. Before the command’s Force Improvement Program, all airmen received the same training, whether they had been assigned to the wing for three months or three years, he noted. That’s not the case anymore. “We’re listening to our airmen and … we took their good ideas and we rolled it up in this training [program],” he said during the Jan. 9 interview. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t screw it up and that we had it right. That’s why we beta-tested it first at Minot and now we’re rolling it out to all the wings.” Wilson said so far he’s getting “two big thumbs up” from the field. “Everybody is seeing an improved way of how we’re doing the mission. It’s better and they like it,” he said. (See also Global Strike Evolution from Air Force Magazine’s August 2014 issue.)