Annual training for the Air National Guard and active duty alike is an invaluable contributor to the Air Force’s ability to remain fit to fight.
Largely, annual training for the Air National Guard consists of skills verification and access to a fully operative location.
“When we come to annual training we come with a list of objectives to fulfill,” said Senior Airman Eric J. Ricchezza, 126th public health technician. “Things that we don’t get hands-on experience with at home. On drill weekends, we have limited responsibilities and duties. Here we get to do it all and see it all.”
Operating in a fully active clinic or office is integral in a Guardsman’s understanding of his or her deployment responsibilities, but the benefit of annual training goes beyond retaining certifications. It allows for an exchange of perspective.
“Because we are guard we have abilities and experiences outside of the Air Force,” said Ricchezza. “We bring real world [perspective] from the civilian side in, different perspectives, different backgrounds.”
This exchange of perspective facilitates the exchange of skill sets which leads to a better run military.
“We compare differences on how they run their sections versus the way we run ours,” said Tech Sgt. Vida Phillippi, NCOIC of Community Health of the 673d Air Base Wing here at JBER. “Maybe there will be a smoother process that they will learn from us, and maybe we will learn a smoother process from them.”
Skills verification and exchange of perspective both allow for the active duty and guard to increase their ability to perform, but it also helps maintain overall mission readiness.
“Working with Guard members in training keeps us up-to-date on what we are doing” said Phillippi, “and it also gets us to fully integrate into the programs ourselves and keeps us from getting complacent.”
Possibly the most valuable contribution to mission readiness, however, is the opportunity to work as a single unit and renew a sense of being part of a joint force.
“We [the Guard] do so much in the time we have [during drill weekends] that we really are functioning at a high level. Us coming in and showing them our skills and what we can do will gives them a view of what the Guard really is,” said Ricchezza.
During Annual Training active duty and guard members alike are hard at work to maintain a unified force that is fit to fight.
| Date Taken: | 06.20.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2016 13:41 |
| Story ID: | 201802 |
| Location: | SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Annual Training Provides Joint Force Experience, by SrA Clare Wallace, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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