National Guard TACPs develop upgrade training program

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mareshah Haynes
  • Defense Media Activity
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AFNS) --  Airmen from the National Guard tactical air control party specialists have pooled their resources to implement a standardized training program to streamline upgrade training.

Project 275, whose name is a throwback to the career field's old specialty code to remind Airmen of the need to get back to basics, said Chief Master Sgt. John Babcock, the superintendent of the 165th Air Support Operations Squadron here. Project 275 allows three-level TACPs and volunteer instructors from across the National Guard to gather in one location to train together.

Upon graduation from technical training school, Airmen are awarded their three skill level and the title apprentice. To progress the next skill level, the five level or journeyman, Airmen have certain core tasks they must master in conjunction with other requirements.

Babcock, along with other squadron leaders and subject matter experts, developed Project 275 in January 2010 to help TACPs who are in the process of earning their five skill levels.

This is the second year the 165th ASOS officials have hosted the training, but the training is projected to rotate each year among the 16 National Guard TACP units.

The Airmen spent six weeks honing their skills in areas including land navigation; radio operations; improvised explosive devices; mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle driving; combatives; and vehicle-rollover training. The project culminated with a field training exercise during which the TACPs used the skills they learned to capture a pre-identified target.

"The initial premise was to possibly create a more formal training (program), a schoolhouse of sorts, to address that period of time when (TACP's upgrade training) skills atrophy," Babcock said. "That is an initiative that is still being looked at on active duty. On the Guard side, we have 16 squadrons throughout the U.S. and it seemed that we could do something in the meantime while waiting for something more formal to come down.

"Since the War on Terror began, certain skill sets in the TACP community have atrophied -- basically the five level," Babcock said. "During the War on Terror, all of the trainers and instructors and knowledgeable guys were going overseas, which left no one back home to teach."

With the high operations tempo of the career field and a lack of seasoned five levels at home stations, the time it took to certify new Airmen as combat mission ready became prolonged, Babcock said.

"By having a standardized, consolidated, structured training program, I think it's very conceivable that guys could have their (combat-mission ready) status within 180 days of leaving (technical) school, he said.

This year, the program was a mix of students who were only a few weeks out of technical school and those who trained with their units since graduating. One student, Staff Sgt. Nathan Angel, a TACP from the 147th ASOS at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, Texas, graduated just three weeks before he began Project 275.

"I think (Project 275) is good because it keeps all the tasks and schoolhouse mentality fresh in your mind," Angel said. "When you get here, you're familiar with all the equipment, you're familiar with all the radio programming and stuff that's kind of technical. If you have a couple of weeks where you're not using it, you forget it.

"Getting those core tasks signed off on your five level is all encompassing here," he said. "Basically, they go step by step of what you need to sign off," so the transition from technical school to Project 275 really is seamless, he said.

Senior Airman James Marlin, a TACP from the 284th ASOS at the Smoky Hill Air National Guard Range, Kan., had a different training experience. Marlin graduated from technical school and returned to his unit for nearly six months before beginning Project 275.

"A lot of the (five- and seven-level TACPs) were so task saturated, not only with getting ready for deployment, but with the logistics of the squadron and other things taking place, the manpower was not there to set aside time for additional training to get (three-level TACPs) combat mission ready," he said.

Next year's training is scheduled to be hosted by the members of the 116th ASOS at Fort Lewis, Wash. Babcock said some of their active-duty counterparts in South Korea are scheduled to implement Project 275 later this year.