The Air Force Starts Here

Welcome to episode #21 of Developing Mach-21 Airmen! In this episode, we’re featuring the audio from a recent Facebook Town Hall with the AETC Command Team where we sat down with Lt. Gen. Brad Webb and Chief Master Sgt. Juliet Gudgel and talked about a host of topics, including the First Command’s new mission, vision, and priorities. We also in depth in each of the four priority areas, which align...

Episode 20 of the pod has Maj. Lindsey Torres, the Special Warfare Training Wing’s lead performance dietitian, sitting down with us talking about how the wing is using a holistic approach to nutrition education and training that will help the readiness of the Air Force’s future Special Warfare Airmen, enabling them to ultimately perform better across the length of their careers.  Torres speaks to...

Welcome to episode #19 of Developing Mach-21 Airmen! In this episode, we have a guest interviewer learning more about the "Classroom of the Future" that is used at the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, or IAAFA: 1st. Lt. Kayshel Trudell, a public affairs officer currently at the 37th Training Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. In this episode, Trudell sits down with Lt. Col. Isaac Davidson,...

Welcome to episode #18 of the Developing Mach-21 Airmen podcast! In this pod, Captain Kyle Palko chats with 2nd Lt. Robert Guest about Project Nexus, an AETC Integrated Technology Detachment and AFWERX-Austin collaboration that is testing one way to fuel technology problem-solving efforts for Airmen across the Air Force. Capt. Palko, the Project NEXUS project manager, talks about the three test gr...

Episode #17 of the pod features Lt. Col. Jamie Wiley and Vincent Villanueva, the director and deputy respectively, from the HQ AETC Occupational Competencies Branch, talking about their develop competency-based learning models across the Air Force’s 266 career fields. The competencies, which combine the knowledge and skills needed to complete a task with the behaviors and other skills, such as cri...

On the pod, Chief Master Sgt. Steve West, Air Force Handbook 1 program manager at Air Education and Training Command's Studies and Analysis Squadron, discusses the AFH1 phone application intended for both professional development and promotion testing prep. Chief West talks about the learning tools inside the app, as well as resources and saved content capabilities of the app, which is available o...

On this episode, Lt. Col. Eric Frahm, director of the AETC Integrated Technology Detachment up at the Capital Factory in Austin, Texas, joins the show, talking about innovation in the multi-domain operational environment, technology, and Learning Next amongst other topics. During the conversation, Lt. Col. Frahm talks about his role at the ATID helping lay down the infrastructure, tools and resour...

On the pod, Senior Airman Francisco Melendez from the Air University public affairs team sits down with Tech. Sgt. Joshua Steward and Senior Master Sgt. Markesha Crawford from the Barnes Center at AU to talk about the Enlisted Professional Military Education Instructor Course, or EPMEIC. Topics include what the course is & how it prepares Airmen to become instructors and get comfortable facilitati...

On the pod, Air Education and Training Command public affairs sits down with the commander, Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast, talking through the last two years and what has stuck out to him about the recruit, train, and educate enterprise. Topics include how the command has executed its strategic goals, including flipping the headquaerters organizational structure; breaking long-held, industrial-aged paradig...

Dr. Kristen Lewis from the 381st Training Group at Vandenburg AFB, Calif., talks about the research behind student-centered learning in communities of practice, which is meant to maximize the learning potential of students by focusing on the needs of individual students. Topics include the research behind the method; it's components and implementation; how it breaks long-held, industrial age parad...

On the pod, released June 10, Dr. Christine Covas-Smith from the Headquarters, AETC Future Environments division, discusses in-depth where the command needs to head in terms of learning in the future and why we have to consider the trends now in order to shape learning in 2030. Topics include the proliferation of artificial intelligence, the use of virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as...

On the pod, released June 10, Dr. Stephanie Covas-Smith from the Headquarters, AETC Future Environments division, discusses in-depth where the command needs to head in terms of learning in the future and why we have to consider the trends now in order to shape learning in 2030. Topics include the proliferation of artificial intelligence, the use of virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as...

In this episode, we visit the Security Forces Academy at Lackland AFB and sit down with Capt. Jeremiah Baxter, officer in charge of the Security Forces Apprentice course, Capt. Zachary Watkins, officer in charge of Security Forces Officer Technical Training, Senior Master Sgt. Brandan King, 343d Training Squadron operations superintendent, and Master Sgt. Henry Crook. We talk about the biggest rec...

In this episode, James Rumfelt from the 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs office at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, talks with two senior NCOs from the 365th Training Squadron about breaking industrial-age paradigms in Air Force technical training. Master Sgt. Brion Kennedy, the avionics fundamentals flight chief, and Master Sgt. James Churchill, the heavy avionics flight chief, discuss various wa...

In the episode, Master Sgt. Ryan Crane from the 81st Training Wing Public Affairs office at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., sits down with Tech. Sgt. Victoria Monzon, a military training leader instructor with the 81st Training Support Squadron at Keesler, to tell her personal story of resilience, hardship, overcoming adversity and love of the Air Force. Born and raised in Guatemala, Monzon talks s...

In the episode, Master Sgt. Bryan Dudley, the emergency manager training flight chief for the 368th Training Squadron at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and a detachment of the 82nd Training Wing based at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, talk all things related to innovation and the future shaping of the learning environment. Dudley goes in-depth on the curriculum development process the 368th TRS used to r...

In this episode, a team of experts from the Squadron Officer School at Air University talk about how they are flipping the classroom, adopting immersive training (including VR, AR, mixed reality) into the learning experience space, helping to better professionally develop our Air Force captains. Ms. Toni Scribner, as well as Captains Anita Sims and Casey Neville drop by, talking about the successe...

In this episode, Lt. Col. Paul Vicars, the director of Pilot Training Next, sits down to discuss the second iteration of AETC’s innovative and experimental approach to learning, based at the Armed Forces Reserve Center near the Austin-Bergstrom (Texas) International Airport. Vicars goes in-depth on the focus areas for PTN 2.0, including innovation in terms of technology and the art of failing forw...

In the episode, a team from the Headquarters Air Education and Training Command A9Z division, which focuses on Engagements and Assessments, talk all things related to innovation and the future shaping of the learning environment. Danielle Koehler, Tech. Sgt. Michael Maturan, and Staff Sgt. Aaron Parker discuss the engagements and assessments division and what they do, what the pursuit of innovatio...

AETC’s command historian, Mr. Gary Boyd, as well as Bill Manchester, AETC staff historian and director of museums at JBSA-Lackland sit down to talk about the Airmen Heritage Training Complex, a project aimed at creating a new state-of-the art Air Force heritage teaching facility to highlight and learn from the sacrifices and achievements of our enlisted force to better acculturate Airmen attending...

Another in-depth discussion with another area of AETC, Recruiting. We talk with Tech. Sgts. Manuel Christian and Meagan Roberts with about 30,000 lives changed in 2018; Recruiter Tiers 1,2,3; Developmental Special Duty; daily life of a recruiter, and "Goals."

An in-depth discussion with the Air Force Basic Military Training superintendent, Chief Master Sgt. Lee Hoover and a military training instructor, Tech. Sgt. Erik Garza, about the changes to the Air Force Basic Military Training curriculum designed to increase lethality and readiness in gra

Another in-depth discussionm, this time with Air Force Recruiting Service. We talk with Tech. Sgts. Manuel Christian and Meagan Roberts about Recruiter Tiers 1,2,3; Developmental Special Duty; "Goals," and 30,000 lives changed in 2018;

An in-depth discussion with the Air Force Basic Military Training superintendent, Chief Master Sgt. Lee Hoover and a military training instructor, Tech. Sgt. Erik Garza, about the changes to the Air Force Basic Military Training curriculum designed to increase lethality and readiness in graduates.