BMT implements ‘Warrior Week'

By 1st Lt. Breton Lewellen
67th IW/PA
Kelly Air Force Base, Texas

Basic Military Training has taken on a new course to prepare new Air Force recruits for deployments.

“We will be so much far-ther ahead when we hit the road with this (training), it will be phenomenal,” Col. Gary Harvey, 67th Intelligence Wing commander, commented about the new Basic Military Training course of instruction, “Warrior Week.”

Warrior Week, is a one-week program inserted into the fifth week of BMT. Trainees go through the entire deployment process: everything from the mobility line, to receiving orders, to actually “deploying” and living in field conditions. This has been added with no additional length to BMT.

Airmen are taught the basics of camouflage, cover and concealment; field maneuvers; and how to operate in field conditions. This includes M-16 training, Self-Aid Buddy Care, Law of Armed Conflict Training, setting up tents, and securing perimeters. It will eventually include Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical training as well.

The week culminates in a Field Training Exercise where the trainees put everything they’ve learned to use. The FTX is a forward-deployed environment, complete with MRE’s, sandbags, and M-16s.

In essence, our new Air Force recruits are taught basic skills we need for expeditionary operations.

The concept of Warrior Week was born out of the nature of the need for tomorrow’s Air Force, as well as recent events. With the new Air Expeditionary Force coming on line and deployments to different parts of the globe, the Air Force realized the urgent need for training incoming airman to prepare them better for a “deployed mindset.”

According to Maj. Dean Fox, the 324th Training Squadron commander, the three major objectives of Warrior Week are to expose trainees to the [AEF] mindset, provide initial entry training (Self-Aid Buddy Care, NBC, etc.), and to infuse a “Warrior Spirit” and increase vigor in trainees.

Fox commented the end of course exercise is highly motivational to trainees. “People leave here (Warrior Week) with a lot of emotion. We need to tie into this.” “You’re going to give me a ‘full-up round’ in terms of combat field skills,” was Harvey’s response to Fox’s explanation of the new training program.

Harvey was invited to BMT to give him an insight on how this training will enhance information operations by giving him field-ready troops. The wing commander was impressed with how troops coming into his command will now be better prepared for deployment.

“The environment created in this course is what they are going to see when they deploy with our AEFs. Today I have to invest a lot of time just to train them in field skills before I can deploy them. But, after they’ve completed this training at Lackland, I just have to get them refreshed,” he said.

“In the past, parts of our Air Force have not been seen as Combat Arms: with AEF and force protection issues after Khobar Towers, it certainly is now. I can tell you right now that the training you are going through is today’s Air Force. Listen to what they are teaching you: it may save your life or your buddy’s life,” Harvey told the troops during a speech he made to them. “You’re more likely to call upon the skills taught here than ever before.”

The trainees are given an introduction to intelligence through “Intel briefings.” This gives them an insight on the role of intelligence to field units and how to recognize and get the most of it at the lowest levels of dissemination (where the boots hit the dirt).

“We can participate in this training program with Lackland by providing speakers from the field, general intelligence assessments, and perhaps inputs for the Field Training Exercises, said Harvey. “Above all, our support needs to encourage the innovative training here to continue and flourish. We will then be ultimate benefactors when we receive ‘full up round’ graduates after their Goodfellow training. For a nominal investment, the Air Force will improve the combat skills of our people while cutting the required training time after arrival to the first duty station by weeks or months.

“This is a must, in my opinion, for AEF operations. Light, lean, lethal…and ready!”