The first recruits enter the newly constructed Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training (BEAST) course at Lackland AFB, Tex., for a week-long series of increasingly difficult activities in a simulated combat environment.
The U.S. began extensive air and artillery strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria on Dec. 19 in retaliation for the killing of three Americans on Dec. 13 by a gunman affiliated with ISIS, U.S. officials said.

