82nd Training Wing Update: Departures and Arrivals

  • Published
  • By Debi Smith
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The training landscape of Sheppard Air Force Base continues to change with the steady departure of enlisted medical courses and the anticipation of an NCO Academy and two technical training courses.

Fifty percent of the 456 permanent party members have relocated and one-third of the training students have departed for their new training location at Camp Bullis, San Antonio, Texas. Twelve courses have moved to the new location and five of those have begun training.

By this time next year, the final 228 permanent party members will have completed the move.

According to Dee Ann Mejia, 882nd TRG Program Manager Transition Operations Manager, this plan means a great deal for the base.

"This move gives us a tri-service training platform," she said. "We've worked together and have proven ourselves in the field (in Iraq and Afghanistan). Training together at the same location allows us to communicate and work today so it is automatic during deployments tomorrow."

Ms. Mejia has been the transition team manager for the past two years and has been instrumental in the marketing of the move, handling the equipment move and managing the personnel move. As part of the personnel movement, she said she has personally aided each individual with getting a new job assignment or making the transition to San Antonio.

"The biggest challenge was the logistics of packing, coordinating and receiving 46 truckloads with an estimated 385 tons of medical training materials across the state," she said. "The transition team managed three to four shipments per month with another 10, representing half the total, scheduled in the next 12 months."

Though the hallways of the 882nd TRG are under construction and classrooms are empty or stacked with furniture, numerous medical training classes continue through the move, including the 383rd Training Squadron's Aerospace Medical Service Apprentice course.

The Independent Duty Medical Technician course will be the last class to officially graduate from Sheppard on Aug. 29. Seeing it as not a closure but a continuation, Ms. Mejia optimistically points out, "we have several new missions coming to Sheppard and it will balance out."

Senior Master Sgt. Robert Smith, 82nd Training Wing training operations superintendent, emphasized the significance of getting three new missions and that Sheppard is the perfect match.

"We are the experts at what we do in the Air Force! We're training more, highly skilled technicians, using cutting-edge equipment and techniques, every day." Sergeant Smith said. "We are the ideal location for an NCO academy. It is an absolute strategic alignment. The NCOA will offer a level of professional military education to enhance a person's leadership, management and communication skills. These students, who will primarily be technical sergeants, will take these skills back to their commands across the nation."

This will be the 11th Air Force academy with six stateside, three in the Pacific and one in Europe. The six-week course will bring over 1,300 developing leaders to Sheppard a year.

Sheppard will also become home to a metals technology course by the end of the year due to the 2005 BRAC decision. The course is comprised of a basic course and two advanced courses that provide supplemental training in welding and machinist skills. The basic course is six months and the advanced courses are two weeks. Metals technology is expected to graduate about 300 metals technology technicians annually.

The preliminary explosive ordnance disposal course is moving from Lackland AFB to Sheppard, and will expand from six days to 20 days. The intent of the course is to better screen candidates for the EOD basic course, which is taught by a 782nd Training Group detachment at Eglin AFB, Fla. The course currently has about a 55 percent attrition rate with a college-level syllabus.

"Sheppard's goal is to increase the length of the preliminary course to better evaluate trainee adaptability and to cement the basic skills a technician will need to know," Sergeant Smith said. "By adjusting our training approach in this very difficult course, we will be enabling our students to be much more successful as they enter the EOD apprentice course."