News

Seasoning Training Program gives Reserve Airmen a leg up in skill

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  Skill training is at the heart of every Reserve Airman's initial enlistment. Following basic training and technical training, Airman must continue to hone their skills when they return to their unit and enter upgrade training.

Accomplishing this upgrade in skill during unit training assembly weekends can make for a long road. But many Reservists can get in the fast lane by participating in the seasoning training program.

Seasoning training allows 3-skill level Airmen and recent aircrew formal school graduates to voluntarily remain on active duty for training as they upgrade to 5-level through on-the-job training. STP days vary for eligible Air Force Specialty Codes.

STP is a training incentive program and not an entitlement, according to Senior Master Sgt. Cheri Lewis, 446th Force Support Squadron, Chief, Force Development Flight. It will be offered each fiscal year provided funding and the training capability exists.

""The program is available to traditional Reservists to sign up for anytime, as long as they have graduated technical school," said Lewis. "However, as we end one fiscal year and enter a new one, funding restrictions won't allow us to start any new STP orders until October."

Senior Airman Jerrod Pilant, 446th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, is in the program and taking advantage of the 130 days he gets for seasoning training.

"I think (STP) is necessary because I learn from doing and this gets me hands on experience," said Pilant, who hails from central Oregon.

In Fiscal Year 2012, the number of enlisted AFSCs eligible for STP was 122. There were also 12 officer AFSCs eligible for the program. Changes to the list for Fiscal Year 2013 have not yet been published, according Lewis,

Additionally, Airmen must not only enroll, but complete, their STP in one year.

For Senior Airman Michael Ngo, a communication navigation apprentice with the 446th AMXS, that means he had to start STP right after completing technical training. His AFSC gets 360 days for STP.

With more than 50 systems to learn, Ngo is finding the STP program is essential to his progression in upgrade training.

"I still do the Reserve weekends here, and I talk to other people on the team. They didn't have this and they're not as proficient as I'll probably be by the time I'm upgraded," said the 21-year-old Federal Way, Wash., native.

"It's definitely an asset to the Reserve community," said Lewis. "The results have been very good. It can take months for some of the new Airmen to get core tasks done. This training time allows our Airmen to be mission qualified in months instead of years."

Core tasks are those an Airman must complete in order to move to the next skill grade.

Ngo's trainer, Michael Wildman, considers the seasoning program to be essential.

"Training on all the systems and how they all interconnect two days a month, amongst all the block training, commander's calls and whatever else needs to be done on a UTA weekend is really rough," said Wildman. "Even if they only had three months, it makes a world of difference. Anytime they can get out here is well worth the time."

Another ComNav trainee, Airman Kevin Clark, really appreciates the concentrated time to learn.

"We have so much exposure to the job. Just being able to come out here every day helps you retain everything you're learning, instead of going home for three weeks to a month before you come out to learn more. So doing it every day, I feel I'm getting more proficient," said Clark, from Lacey, Wash.