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Goodfellow becomes a one stop shop for intelligence

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Zachary Chapman
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  

With a 90 day turn around, the 315th Training Squadron has brought about a change in the way future targeteers are being taught here at Goodfellow.

Despite all of the training received at Goodfellow, trainees must still complete more training at their first duty station. This means more time spent training and not accomplishing their new mission.

“Before, the targeting training had been dispersed across MAJCOMs and geographical locations causing a feeling of disjointed learning,” said Capt. Kevin Dwyer, 315th Training Squadron flight commander. “This also causes a burden to operational units due to them having to finish the training.”

With the new module, Goodfellow will be able to address all of the targeteer training requirements.

“We already had all the equipment in house, but this will be the first time Goodfellow was able to train fully,” said Dwyer. “Now we will just be using our equipment to its fullest giving our trainees the most out of what we have.”

Courses are already being taught, but the unit is expecting five or more individual courses.

“Each branch will decide what courses their trainees need, but each course will be the same,” said Master Sgt. James Sander, 315th TRS flight chief. “These courses will make it easy to maintain flexibility with our sister services.”

The first wave of changes will begin November.

“November will be a more robust and application based training,” said Dwyer. “We will use the first few classes to see how the changes are received.”
Instructors of the new module will also be receiving training on how best to teach the new material.

“This was initially taught by Offutt Omaha mobile training teams,” said Dwyer. “They will continue to teach for the first four iterations, but by the third iteration, Goodfellow instructors will begin shadowing so that they are confident and comfortable with this.”

There are other focuses on the Continuum of Learning happening at the 315th TRS. The Career Development Program is set towards a focus of on-command and on-demand modular learning.

According to Senior Master Sgt. Jerome Wright, 315th TRS operations superintendent, the goal is to make upgrade modules that are living-breathing-documents that are continuously updated. This will allow Airmen in the field to use them on the job when they need them, unlike Career Development Courses. They will be "on-command & on-demand modular training," which is in-line with the Air Education Training Command’s philosophy on the CoL. These will come in the form of five, seven and nine level modules.

The 315th TRS is always looking towards new ways to make their future Airmen more capable.

“It is interesting to see our targeting systems, as it has grown over the years,” said Dwyer. “Particularly, within our intelligence infrastructure. If you go back to the Air Corps in 1917, it was identified what would be required for effective targeting. Our combat targeting course taught now helps build holistically trained, fully certified and fully qualified targeteers. Hopefully this will be our foundation to jettison targeting into the world of Artificial Intelligence and the next wave of warfare.”