AETC senior leaders visit new Sheppard unit Published Oct. 5, 2020 By Staff Sgt. Robert McIlrath 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Air Education and Training Command Commander Lt. Gen. Brad Webb and Chief Master Sgt. Erik Thompson, AETC command chief, visited the command’s and Sheppard Air Force Base’s newest training asset at Vandenberg AFB Sept. 29, 2020. The 381st Training Group here, which conducts missile operations maintenance training at the 532nd Training Squadron, was recently realigned under the 82nd Training Wing at Sheppard AFB, Texas. The 381st TRG will soon be deactivated, and the 532nd TRS will realign under the 82nd TRG at Sheppard. The AETC leadership team, along with the 82nd TRW and 381st TRG leadership teams, toured the 532nd TRS’s different facilities around base and got to see firsthand the vital mission of training the Air Force’s future missile maintainers. The visit included conference calls, coining Airmen and instructors, visiting the schoolhouse and dining at the newly refurbished dining hall, along with a closer look at stop a missile silo used for training. After climbing down a steep 20-foot ladder into the silo, the leadership team toured the training site and saw students accomplishing their missile maintainer training. Sheppard was home to missile operation and maintenance training from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s before it was moved to Vandenberg. The base’s reconnection with its past began even sooner than the 381st’s realignment when missile maintenance detachments were stood up at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, and Minot AFB, North Dakota, about three years ago.