No more 'Chair Force' - these airmen are poised for battle

12:00 AM CDT on Monday, April 24, 2006

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

SAN ANTONIO – Primo Fiore had never held a firearm in her life – until a month ago. Now, the 19-year-old Air Force trainee can crawl through 90 yards of sand with an M-16 rifle, carefully take it apart and reassemble it in two minutes flat with sharp, precise movements.

"I never thought it would be this extreme," said Airman Fiore during a rare break at Lackland Air Force Base. "But I'm getting used to it."

For decades, the Air Force was derided by rival services as the "Chair Force" – the country club of the military. Personnel received a few hours of combat training and rarely fired a rifle after basic training. No more. The Air Force has gone macho.

In what officials call the biggest change in training in 60 years, the 30,000 recruits who flow through the gate at Lackland – the service's only basic training center – now get a fundamental mix of combat skills to prepare them for assignments in the Middle East.

"We no longer have a Cold War mentality, where we always assumed the Army or Marines would be between us and the bad guys," said Chief Master Sgt. Steve Sargent, superintendent of the 327th Training Group at Lackland. "Now, in Iraq and Afghanistan, we're out there facing the bad guys on the ground. We have to be self-sufficient and protect our own."

About one-third of all Air Force personnel have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 attacks, Air Force officials estimate. Some 48 Air Force personnel have died since the war began – nearly half from hostile causes. Last year, after taking over convoy duty in Iraq from the Army, the Air Force rushed through training for personnel ordered for deployment.

Next year, the Air Force plans to add two weeks to its 6 ½-week training schedule to include more familiarization with weapons and a week of intensified exposure to field tactics.

Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff who championed the changes, wanted tougher, more combat-ready training for new recruits almost guaranteed to be sent into harm's way somewhere in the world.

After review by the Air Force command, basic training changed last November to focus on making every airman a warrior first.

Some of the most significant changes include introduction of fundamental warrior skills, such as self-defense and "combat recovery" at the front of the training cycle and creation of a weeklong basic combat training exercise. Known as Basic Expeditionary Airmen Skills Training, or BEAST, the new training will give recruits a taste of combat skills at a $28 million replica of a forward air base, generally located in the combat zone to provide air power.

One of the more stunning changes: no more folding T-shirts into a six-inch square.

The time-honored practice, used to teach recruits attention to detail and discipline, has gone the way of the biplane fighter.

Training instructors – the Air Force's equivalent of the Army drill sergeants – still insist on mirror-shined shoes and tight and neat corners on everything from bed covers to underwear.

But recruits now neatly roll their shirts and socks – shaving 16 hours off for other training, said Col. Gina Grosso, commander of the 737th Training Group that is responsible for all Air Force basic training.

"Time spent folding T-shirts was time we didn't spend on learning how to use weapons or combat defense of a base," said Col. Grosso.

"People often had the misperception that the Air Force wasn't a combat force. I make a practice of talking to new trainees, and I've learned that most of them don't realize that they have joined a profession of arms," Col. Grosso said. "Will the adaptation of the 'warrior mentality' change that perception? I hope so."

With its responsibility for operation and maintenance of some of the world's most technologically advanced military aircraft, the Air Force will always be a high-tech service that emphasizes the computer over the rifle.

But the new realities of war and potential for terrorist attacks mean that Air Force personnel must also learn how to fight, Col. Grosso said.

"We no longer have the luxury of providing only 1.5 days of war skill training as the Air Force did prior to 1999," she said.

Staff Sgt. John Tingle, weapons specialist, said recruits are initially apprehensive about even touching the practice rifles.

"Most trainees have never even seen a weapon, and they find it very intimidating. They're not sure they want to touch it," he said. "But soon, after they've carried it and slept with it and learned to tear it apart ... they see it's just another tool they'll use."

Airman Amanda Reed, 20, of Burlington, N.J., said her parents weren't too keen on her enlisting. But her grandmother, an Air Force vet, is pleased – and very proud her granddaughter is learning combat skills, she said.

"I'm doing things I never expected I'd do. And I think my grandmother likes it that I'm doing things she didn't get to do," she said. "We pretty much knew that there was a good chance we'd go to war at some point, and they really reinforce that here."

During the fourth week of training, recruits get a taste of battlefield life on an austere and rocky section of Lackland. For a handful of days, it's home. Haggard kids in overlarge helmets and dirty battle dress uniforms crouch behind firing positions or crawl, then run, as TIs scream "HURRY!" Hidden speakers blast out sounds of machine-gun fire and mortar explosions.

"About 85 percent of these kids will be deployed to one hot spot or another during their career," said Master Sgt. Rob Hembrees, who supervises the FTX, or field-training site. "As long as we can prepare them to meet the conditions they will face, it's a good thing."

It's a lesson not wasted on Airman Stephanie Cable, 18, of Jackson, Miss. Her eyes still streaming from the gas chamber exercise, she acknowledges that education, not combat, was on her mind when she enlisted.

"But this is what I expected it to be," she said. "There's stuff going on all over the world, and we have to get ready for it."

What the Army calls barracks, the Air Force calls dormitories. In a section of the base called "Hotel Row," each of Lackland's seven training squadrons has its own dormitory, a sprawling, multistory building that houses 800 to 1,000 trainees.

Sleeping quarters are austere at best: concrete floor and gray-pained walls with 30 steel beds lined in precise rows. Steel lockers display dress uniforms and daily uniforms arranged neatly on hangers. A pullout drawer holds underwear and socks in precise order.

"Taking care of the details helps save lives – whether you're flying a jet or responsible for tightening the bolts," said Staff Sgt. Jacob Chavez, standing as tall and straight as a recruiting poster.

The additional war skills training comes as a shock for the new recruits, Sgt. Chavez said.

"The transition from PlayStation warrior to a real one takes a while," he said. "Some get it faster than others. Ten years ago, when I came in, we didn't have this kind of approach. We believed that pilots fought the wars and we just took care of the planes. That's no longer true."

"These trainees are better prepared for a world at war," he added.

Airman Kevin Fitzpatrick, 19, of Barrington, R.I., is one day from graduation and will soon be out in that new world.

"After a year of college, the Air Force looked like a good way to get money to finish my education," he said. "I didn't really expect this coming in. I talked to my grandfather, and he didn't go through stuff like this."

The worst part was the first day, he said.

"The TIs yelled and screamed, and none of us knew what to do. By the time we got to Warrior Week, it was pretty much fun. ... We all know we'll be deployed overseas. We're not just going to be sitting in an office somewhere."

His words make Col. Grosso smile.

"I guess the message is getting through," she said. "We don't want airmen to be in a position ever again that when they're deployed into harm's way, they don't know what to do with an M-16 or how to put on their chemical decontamination suit. Everyone has to be a warrior now."

E-mail dmclemore@dallasnews.com