Photo By Airman Nahaku Takahashi | U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Brandon Baltzegar, 628th Civil Engineer Squadron heating,...... read more read more
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Trained and ready, Team Charleston Airmen participated in an intensive weeklong course at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, Feb. 24-28, 2025.
The battlefield, assessment, and tactical training learning environment aims to develop a resilient warrior mindset. Throughout the week, Airmen gain the necessary survival skills to become a lethal force, adaptable in any environment.
To equip the next generation of warfighters, BATTLE school focuses on weapon familiarization, land navigation, search and recovery, camouflage, cover and decoy deployment, combatives, field training exercises, and tactical combat casualty care.
“Readiness and lethality are all we do here,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Tanner McClung, 628th Air Base Wing plans and programs BATTLE school cadre. “Everything we do, every single piece of the curriculum we have built, is centered around those mindsets and mentalities.”
From hand-to-hand combat to land navigation skills, Airmen learn to survive in varying deployment environments.
“Our purpose is to instill the proficiency and the capability of a militant mindset of, 'I am here to be good at being in the military,’ and how to use their weapons, how to defend, attack, move tactically with their equipment, and keep people alive,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Arthur Eskandri, 628th ABW plans and programs BATTLE school cadre. “All the things we lose once we get mired in the day-to-day activities.”
With a responsibility to themselves and their teammates, the cadre remind Airmen to act as if they are in a real deployment environment.
“We like to practice how we play, so when you catch us in our normal rhythm of BATTLE school and when we are going through our scenarios and drills - we keep it very serious and very intense,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Randall Bagtas, 628th ABW plans and programs BATTLE school cadre.
BATTLE school, formerly Ready Airmen Training, has become more hands-on during training scenarios, such as combatives on the mat and land navigation.
“We’ve evolved BATTLE school to support the new deployment platform,” McClung said. “There are levels of accountability with the members that we are training this week to be assessed by the rest of the Air Task Force on temporary duty assignments abroad, that was not on the docket prior.”
Joint Base Charleston continues to develop Airmen as they work with supporting agencies such as legal, the chaplain corps, and the integrated resilience office to remain vigilant against threats.
“Battle school is important for Airmen to be ready for today and tomorrow’s fight,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Darius Williams, 437th Operations Support Squadron airfield management operations noncommissioned officer in charge. “It has taught me strategies to defend and protect the Airmen by my side on the battlefield and to stay proficient against current and future enemies.”
Team Charleston remains ready anywhere, anytime, as warriors of the nation's premier power projection platform.
| Date Taken: | 02.28.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.28.2025 16:47 |
| Story ID: | 491810 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 50 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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