Seasoning program getting 931st Airmen trained faster

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jason Schaap
  • 931st Air Refueling Group Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  A year ago, Brad Vanzandt was a tractor salesman wondering what direction he wanted his life to take.

He decided to make a change, a big change-"220,000 volts" of change.

"I want to do what you do," he told his father, a retired Airman and electrical engineer.

The contract jobs his father worked on in Topeka, Kan., were big jobs-220,000 volt-type jobs. Plenty of training would be needed.

So, the younger Mr. Vanzandt went to an Air Force Reserve recruiter. The 931st Civil Engineer Squadron had an open electrical position, the recruiter said, and a new Reserve program would allow him to work full time to speed up his training. The elder Mr. Vanzandt told his son to jump at the chance.

Basic training and technical school complete, Airman Vanzandt is now training with the 22nd Air Refueling Wing, the 931st's host unit at McConnell Air Force Base. He's on active-duty orders funded by Air Force Reserve Command's Season Training Program.

A month into the program, Airman Vanzandt has done everything from "change light bulbs" to "installing the receptacles" the bulbs go into.

"They switch me around about every week," he said.

When he finishes the six months of full-time work the program allows for his career field, Airman Vanzandt will be trained well beyond what a "traditional" one-weekend, two-weeks-per-year schedule would have offered.

"It's unreal how much they learn," Shannon Gilchrist, 22nd Civil Engineer Squadron, said. "It amounts to years (of traditional Reserve training)."

Mr. Gilchrist is Airman Vanzandt's supervisor and has been an engineer at McConnell for 15 years, first as an Airman then as a civilian. He has had two 931st CES engineers in the program who work for him and watched how their availability can help the active-duty force as well.

"It's a win-win for both of us," Gilchrist said, referring to the 931st CES and his own 22nd CES that has been short on engineers recently. "We can use the extra hand, and they can use the training."

Senior Master Sgt. Pam Summers, 931st Education and Training chief, also used the words "win-win" to describe the two-year-old seasoning program. Not only do 3-skill level Airmen get 5-skill level training in a hurry, they enjoy getting paid to learn, and traditional Reservists like Airman Vanzandt use the increased training pace to advance in their civilian careers. At the same time, the 931st ARG becomes more war ready.

The seasoning makes Airmen "more functional," Sergeant Summers said. "They're more productive when they are here on drill weekends."

Airman 1st Class PJ Paschal is taking advantage of the program during her summer break. She'll soon have to squeeze her one weekend a month as a jet engine mechanic for the 931st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron into a busy schedule teaching Spanish to high schoolers.

Like other Airmen, she uses her full-time status to work on required career development courses when she has time in between hands-on training.

"When school starts, I'm not going to have a lot of time to work on this," Airman Paschal said.

Maintainers are among those who have benefited most from seasoning, Sergeant Summers said. The program has been a "huge help" to the 931st's Aerospace Medicine Flight too, she added, allowing new AMDF Airmen to serve on temporary duty at other Air Force bases for medical training not available at McConnell.

Airman 1st Class Elliott Snow, 931st AMDF didn't need to leave McConnell for information management training, but he did have to find a different 931st ARG unit in which to train. He's currently on orders with the 931st's Communication and Information Systems Flight. His trainer is Tech. Sgt. Roxanne Halenka, Information Systems Flight chief.

"He is going to stay here until he is fully trained," Sergeant Halenka said.

Information managers who go "straight to the field" tend to get bogged down doing other work that slows their upgrade training, she then explained. The seasoning program allowed Staff Sgt. Crystal Bozick, Sergeant Halenka's previous trainee, to finish her training and immediately offset an information manager shortage in the 18th Air Refueling Squadron.

Sergeant Bozick, who was assigned to 931st AMDF before joining the 18th ARS, also benefited from the decision to expand seasoning to Airmen cross training into a new career. Prior to October 2007, the program had been only available to brand new Reservists. Almost all of the 931st ARG cross trainees now enroll in the program, Sergeant Summers said.

All career fields are eligible for seasoning funding, but the duration of training varies with job complexity. Orders are issued for a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year.

Education and Training offices are responsible for facilitating seasoning requests. The 931st ARG currently has eight Airmen in the program, Sergeant Summers said, and the group has averaged about five Airmen enrolled since it began.


For more information, call Senior Master Sgt. Pam Summers, Education and Training Chief at (316) 759-5423, or Tech. Sgt. Shannan Hughes, Education and Training Assistant Chief at (316) 759-6082.