2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

OCCUPATIONAL SURVEY SUPPORT OF
AIR AND SPACE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (AEF) REQUIREMENTS
Mr. Robert E. Boerstler, Civilian, Chief, Leadership Development Section
Mr. John L. Kammrath, Civilian, Chief, Occupational Analysis Flight
Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron, Randolph AFB, TX 78150-4449
robert.boerstler@randolph.af.mil john.kammrath@randolph.af.mil
ABSTRACT
This paper highlights the Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron’s (AFOMS)
involvement in the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) initiative to determine 3-skilllevel
deployment requirements in support of the Air and Space Expeditionary Forces (AEFs). In
order to provide current AF leadership with a strategy for conducting initial skills training
focused on deployment tasks, AFOMS was challenged to devise a means of surveying members
currently deployed and members who have returned from deployments within the past
12 months. Ten sample specialties with known deployment requirements were selected to
participate in this survey. Results of this effort provided insight into the importance of targeted
task training in initial skills training courses. The potential for AETC to change from garrisonbased
initial skills training to deployment task training will require a paradigm shift for many of
the US Air Force functional communities to “train as they fight” in support of the AEF structure.
INTRODUCTION
AEFs were invented in the 1990s to solve chronic deployment problems. More than anything
else, the Air Force hoped to provide a measure of stability and predictability for its airmen, who
were constantly being dispatched overseas on one short-notice contingency assignment after
another. It was not apparent at the time what a big difference this change was going to make.
The AEFs have become a new way of life for the Air Force.
Airmen are still assigned to their regular units at their home stations. But most likely they also
belong to an AEF, and for 3 months out of every 15, the AEF governs where they will be and
what they will do. About half of the airmen and officers in the active duty force are already in an
AEF, and the number is rising. Guard and Reserve participation is so high that a fourth of the
deployed forces come from the Air Reserve Components.
The Air Force has grouped its power projection forces and the forces that support them into 10
"buckets of capability," each called an AEF. (The other abbreviation, "EAF"--for Expeditionary
Air and Space Force--refers to the concept and organization.)
Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche told Congress in February that "a nominal AEF has
about 12,600 people supporting 90 multirole combat aircraft, 31 intratheater airlift and air
refueling aircraft, and 13 critical enablers. The enablers provide command, control,
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45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003