Photo By Senior Airman Beaux Hebert | The 43rd Flying Training Squadron is an Air Force Reserve unit on Columbus Air Force...... read more read more
The Air Force has multiple components, the active duty, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserves, and Air Force civilians who work together to ensure they are capable of delivering air and space power anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice; this is known as Total Force.
One of the benefits of the Total Force is it allows guardsmen and reservists to bring their experiences and ideas from outside of the military to be a cost effective fighting force. Their diversity of thought contributes to the creation of a more productive and efficient fighting force.
The 43rd Flying Training Squadron is Columbus Air Force Base’s Total Force component. They are an Active Associate Unit embeded with active-duty personnel on a daily basis. Maj. Stephen Hoffert, 43rd FTS assistant director of operations, said they fly the same planes, teach the same students, instruct and support the mission the same as their active-duty counterparts.
In addition to their own leadership structure, Hoffert also said they are tasked to support the active-duty commanders of the 14th Flying Training Wing and Air Education and Training Command. Out of 1,450 service members, there are about 100 reservists assisting active-duty personnel with the 14th FTW’s mission – cultivating Airmen, creating pilots and connecting.
“You’re bringing new capabilities and talents to the table,” said Maj. Kristine Brunshidle, 43rd FTS executive officer. “I used to do research at a university that was largely focused on behavioral health, so that taught me how to communicate with people and be more effective as a leader.”
In the first half of Fiscal Year 2018, the 43rd FTS made up about 12 percent of all instructor pilots here, and according to Hoffert, they flew about 15 percent of all sorties from Columbus AFB. They also covered a large portion of squadron operations supervision and supervised flying tours.
Another benefit of Total Force is that it provides a high level of experienced Airmen to support the 14th Flying Training Wing’s missions.
“As reservist, we’re privileged to perform our assigned mission longer than most active-duty personnel,” Hoffert said. “We don’t have to PCS after three or four years. Some of our Instructors have been teaching here since 2003 and have watched our processes evolve. They’ve seen what’s worked and what hasn’t. That experience is a great resource to the Air Force.”
According to the Air Force’s Facebook page, team work, or Total Force in this case, is an essential part in accomplishing the mission, and at Columbus AFB the 43rd FTS is essential to creating pilots.
| Date Taken: | 08.30.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.30.2018 09:32 |
| Story ID: | 290887 |
| Location: | COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, There’s no ‘I’ in Total Force, by SrA Beaux Hebert, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
