From accredited degrees to basic training, CMSAF James Cody emphasized the importance of education among enlisted members during his speech at ASC16 Wednesday morning. Despite having the smallest Air Force in history, the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) graduated 23,000 students in 2015, up from 9,000 in 1987, and CCAF will reach 500,000 total graduates sometime next year, said Cody. The Air Force now boasts “credentialing opportunities online for every one of our career fields,” he added. Cody also discussed the restructuring of military professional education into sequenced courses in airmanship and said “we have redesigned basic military training” as well. The cornerstone of the latter, Cody emphasized, is the rebranded Airman’s Week, which seeks more effectively mark the transition from trainee to professional airman.
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to modernize and ditch certain platforms.…