Keesler turnaround: training starts Sept. 19

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  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Training in five key career fields restarts for 400 Airmen here Sept. 19, six months sooner than base officials forecasted more than a week ago.

Then, more students will start training the following week, said Col. Jessie Canaday, 81st Training Group commander. And more students will gradually enter training each week after that as this base continues to recover from the pounding it took from Hurricane Katrina.

Air Force officials determined what training would start based on the service’s critical needs, said the colonel, commander of the Air Force’s largest training group.

“We’re taking our lead from our major command to tell us which ones are critical, that we need to get trained now,” she said. “But basically, we can stand up most of the initial skills training we did here, for now.”

The Air Education and Training Command base provides technical training for Airmen in almost 30 Air Forces specialties. And its instructors teach more than 500 supplemental courses such as upgrade training and professional military education.

The first technical training classes to go back on line are the electronic principles, aircrew training, air traffic control, weather and basic instructor courses, the colonel said.

Colonel Canaday said on Sept. 26 the group will stand up the financial management, personnel, information management, computer maintenance, technical control and ground radio control courses.

The first 400 students to re-enter training are the volunteers who stayed at the base to help with the massive cleanup effort that still continues. On Sept. 16, 350 more students will arrive -- maybe part of the group evacuated from the base after the storm. Initially, these students will join the base cleanup effort and then enter training in groups of 150 each week, the colonel said.

Also, on Sept. 19, students will start arriving via the normal technical training pipeline from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

“We hope to take as many as 150 each Monday as we bring more training on line,” said Colonel Canaday, who is from New Castle, Wyo.

Airman Basic Kirk Riley did not get to start his four-month long air traffic control course before the hurricane hit. So he volunteered to stay and help with recovery efforts “because it was the right thing to do.” But after two weeks on the cleanup crew, he is ready for the classroom.

“It’s really great that training is starting again,” said the 18-year-old Airman from Morgantown, W.V. “I want to finish my training so I can get on with my Air Force career.”

Hundreds of other Airmen might be saying the same thing. Colonel Canaday said the Air Force has not decided if the 1,100 students evacuated to Sheppard AFB, Texas, after the storm will return for training here or retrain into new career fields. Some troops have already received their Air Force specialty because they were within days of graduation.

One alternative the Air Force is considering is sending Keesler instructors to Sheppard to allow the Airmen to finish their training there. But the colonel said the students might return to Keesler to finish training.

“Right now we’re still discussing all that,” she said.

What officials do know is that the supplemental training done on the base is on hold for at least 90 days. These course -- 60 percent which students attend while on temporary duty status -- can last from one week to a month. But starting that training is not possible now.

“We just don’t have the facilities to bring in TDY students at this time,” the colonel said.

Billeting spaces are at a premium here. The base is housing Airmen and their families that lost their homes to the hurricane in dormitories. And hundreds of local, state and federal workers staging relief operations from Keesler partly fill the massive dormitory where students normally live. Before the supplemental training can resume, all those people must move out.

“So our supplemental training will probably not be reconstituted for maybe up to 90 days -- I’m thinking after the first of the year,” Colonel Canaday said.

The group is eager to get back to business, the colonel said. But it lost three of its 18 training facilities to the storm. Of those that survived, 17 need repairs to get back on line. The colonel said most of the damage is to roofs. But because it has not rained since the hurricane, that has allowed repair crews to put temporary roofs on the damaged buildings.

The one building the hurricane did not damage, Vosler Hall, now houses the group’s headquarters and that of the mission support group and training support squadron. Airmen are working to have it ready for the start of classes.

“We’re just trying to get back to a normal routine, said Master Sgt. Laurie Jackson, the group’s information management superintendent. She said readying to train students is the top priority.

But getting back into a training mood might take more than just having students and buildings. It is just as important to get people’s attitudes back into work mode, said the sergeant from Cochranton, Pa.

“They’re sidetracked by all the stuff going on outside,” she said. From 35 to 50 percent of group workers lost their homes to the storm.

But Colonel Canaday said people at Keesler are adjusting more each day. Many have come to terms with their losses and have filed for insurance compensation. Most have also settled into new places to live, though in some cases temporarily. Others have sent their families elsewhere until they can send for them.

The quicker-than-expected recovery of areas outside the base is also bringing most of the base on line. Each day, the base quality of life continues to improve. Slowly, things are returning to normal. People are adjusting and moving on, she said.

The hurricane might have damaged Keesler, but it did not break it, the colonel said. People are willing and able to bring the base’s vital mission back on line.

“We need to get back to work,” she said. It is important for the people and for the Air Force that the group to get back on line -- “to get people thinking of that. And then we will give people time off to go continue reconstituting their life.”