SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --
Unit: Detachment 22, 372nd Training
Squadron
Location: Minot AFB, ND
Mission: To Train and
Motivate Our Airman
Vision: Provide Field Training and Training
Support That Makes a Lasting Difference
Staff: 12 Active Duty USAF instructors
What We Do:
“Our
mission at Detachment 22 at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota is to support
the 5th Bomb Wing and the 91st Missile Wing by providing follow-on, upgrade, cross-over,
and advanced maintenance training on the B-52s as well as instructional courses
to security forces, munitions and training personnel throughout both wings,”
said Field Training Detachment Chief, Master Sgt. Ericson Wolford. “This small, yet powerful team of 12
instructors across five AFSCs have a combined 155 years of aircraft maintenance
experience. In the last 12 months, we’ve
graduated 333 students and stand ready to take on new challenges.”
A new addition to the 60-year-old B-52 is
the roll out of the Combat Network Communications System (CONECT) upgrade. It has given the aircraft a new platform to improve
operator awareness, in-flight re-targeting, carrier re-tasking, and an enhanced
situational awareness in a more efficient, versatile, and timely manner. The B-52
avionics systems instructor Tech. Sgt. Timothy Germain stated, “This new course will
keep our students on the leading edge of training and maintenance for new
capabilities on an aging fleet.”
Det 22 has also just finished validating a
whole new ‘Combat Readiness Training’ course.
This new course is a complete re-write and update to the original. Over a period of six weeks this new course
takes new B-52 crew chiefs and prepares them to be a 5-level through rigorous
instruction and supervision as well as hands-on demonstration and task
completion. After graduation the
students are 100% signed off on all 5-level core tasks and go back to their
sections more than prepared to meet the demands of the flight-line with minimal
supervision. Tech. Sgt. Kory
Collier stated, “Teaching young Airmen to maintain excellent standards in their
work and watching them develop into professionals, makes us proud to do what we
do every day.”
Det 22 is constantly looking to advance
training by the development and re-utilization of aircraft/system trainer
development. Over the past year
instructors have removed a communications trainer from the Operations Group to
utilize in our existing communications and navigation course which saved over $4.5
million in costs to the Air Force. The
development of a B-52 main landing gear wheel and tire trainer will be used in
place of an operational aircraft and will save 25 hours per Combat Readiness
Training course. We’re constantly
evolving to meet the high demands and needs of AFGSC and the 5th Bomb Wing.
Master Sgt. Wolford summed up his team,
“Although Det 22 is a small organization, the impact that these instructors
have across the 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Missile Wing is of major
significance. Det 22 instructors are the
example of professionalism that the students strive to embody and we will
continue to set the example and maintain a significant presence with the local
community.”