-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! 001787. Sergeant rewarded for trainer design by Staff Sgt. William Seabrook Jr. 16th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs HURLBERT FIELD, Fla. (AFPN) -- A 19th Special Operation Squadron sergeant here has been named the inaugural winner of the Air Force Modeling and Simulation Achievement Award. Master Sgt. Kenneth Taylor received the award for developing the Visual Threat Recognition and Avoidance Trainer which provides realistic interactive training for threat avoidance during hostile anti-aircraft engagements. "The primary objective of VTRAT is to provide crewmembers a training solution that improves mission success and survivability by affording (them) the opportunity to practice through repetitive interaction with anti-aircraft threats in a safe environment prior to real-world engagement," said Taylor. "Additionally, we're able to evaluate the student's performance to a 90 percent measurable accuracy level." Taylor, an AC-130 gunship illuminator operator/loadmaster with 18 years of gunship experience, conceived the idea for this trainer as a result of his personal anti-aircraft threat engagement experiences, especially the combat missions during Operation Dessert Storm. The trainer was originally developed to train AC-130 gunship crewmembers, but it can be useful to all Department of Defense aircrews, Taylor said. Upon completion of phase three of the four-phase development process, VTRAT will be incorporated into 62 formal Air Force courses, providing initial qualification, annual refresher training and mission rehearsal simulation for more than 1,000 Air Force Special Operations Command crewmembers. "We didn't have the tools to properly prepare our people to interact with . . . anti-aircraft threats back then," he said. "Our threat avoidance training up to that time consisted of watching old films and listening to other fliers' experiences. This led to dangerous consequences, i.e. crew-members completing their training on the battlefield over real threats, and not in an academic environment. The first time you got shot at was the real deal..." Taylor related his Gulf War combat experiences and how his crew, Spirit 01, had operated over the same environment, that only three hours later, took lives of 14 fellow commandos on Spirit 03. That loss, he said, was his motivation. "It was really hairy over there," Taylor said. "We were accomplishing missions that stretched the envelope of survivability at such low and slow profiles. You learn to focus quickly in environments like that, or you don't get to see another day standing. I have often contemplated why did I survive that environment while others didn't? "I hope that in the eyes of God, the development of VTRAT will provide crewmembers the skills required to return home safely to their family members and will be seen as not squandering my blessings of surviving the threat engagement experiences," he said. "Each of us is responsible for training the next generation of air commandos and it's to what degree of intensity we apply ourselves in this effort that determines the quality of tomorrow's force." Taylor conceptualized this trainer from the ground up, said Maj. Scott Moore, 19th SOS Distributed Missions Operations flight commander. He saw the need, wrote a mission needs statement, briefed requirement review boards, and then got AFSOC and ultimately the Air Force vice chief of staff to approve it. Once that was done he took the idea to the Air Force Research Lab at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. At AFRL he worked with a group of scientists as well as computer graphics engineers to design the system. "His tenacity and drive to see this thing through saved the Air Force more than $6 million in research costs and cut more than three years off the development time," Moore said. "He was a man on a mission and he wouldn't be side-tracked by technicalities; by taking 'no' for an answer when it's contrary to sound judgment. He's truly one of the quiet professionals." The computerized trainer uses three-dimensional imagery to portray incoming antiaircraft fire. The crewmember then has to make the appropriate defensive decision in order to evade the threat. Because of its network architecture, the program is adaptable to any crew position on an aircraft. "(Taylor is) not doing this for personal gain," said Senior Master Sgt. Garry King, 19th SOS/DMO superintendent. "He's trying to protect current and future fliers by allowing them to learn from his experience in a real-world environments. Four hours after receiving initial training, the crewmember has experienced more than 400 enemy threats and his or her reaction to those threats has been evaluated." As far as receiving the award Taylor says he feels humbled and thankful people are recognizing his work. "Modeling and simulation is the future of the Air Force because it provides cost effective and safe real-time interactive training to aerial crewmembers," he said. "We used to have build mock-ups of structures on a bombing range and then attack them. We can now do a great deal of that in simulation." Networks of individual simulators linked to different geographically separated simulators is the spearhead in the mission rehearsal and planning tools. This affords crewmembers and mission commanders pre-mission evaluation and calibrating prior to generating a single sortie and the associated cost. Taylor will travel to Washington, D.C., Jan. 11 to receive the award from Dr. Jacqueline Henningsen, the associate director for modeling and simulation at Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon. 001790. Missiles Division completes Sidewinder upgrade by Hal McKenzie Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Public Affairs ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) -- The Missiles Division of the Space and Special Systems Management Directorate here recently celebrated the completion of a major upgrade of the Air Force's air-to-air AIM-9M-9 Sidewinder missile. Members of the AIM-9M-9 integrated process team from Robins AFB attended a ceremony at Letterkenny Munitions Center in Chambersburg, Penn., marking the building of the last updated missile. The Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile used by most U.S. fighter aircraft and the A-10 ground support aircraft. Its guidance system homes in on the engine exhaust of target aircraft, enabling the pilot to launch and leave while the missile guides itself to the target. "The purpose of the modification is to improve counter counter-measure capability," said Paul Wellborn, deputy chief of the missiles division. "Enemy aircraft throw out flares to confuse the missile and we corrected that problem. It gives the war fighter's missiles a higher probability of a kill." The modification program delivered 6,600 modified missiles to Air Force field units, according to logistics analyst Paul Bennett, a contractor from Value Systems Engineering working with the Missiles Division. "All test sets had to be modified, too, to check out the new capability," said logistics manager John Collins, also a contractor from VSE. "They had to be modified before the missiles could be sent to the field." Bennett said the upgrade and delivery of the missiles to the field involved a "lot of coordination" between Warner Robins, the manufacturer, the armed services and Letterkenny. He said 179 deliveries were made to 84 locations in the United States and around the world, bringing the older missiles back for modifications and sending new missiles out so as not to reduce inventory for the war fighter. "If any part had broken down in the round-robin flow, it would have set everything behind schedule," Bennett said. "We couldn't wait for a warehouse full of shipments. They need missiles on day one of a war. 001791. General Jumper: Air combat future will rely on joint effort of ACC, AFMC by Tech. Sgt. Andrew Gates 5th Combat Communications Group Public Affairs ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) -- The future of air combat will rely extensively on the initiatives from a joint effort between Air Force Materiel Command and Air Combat Command, according to ACC's commander. Gen. John Jumper spoke about the experimental combined aerospace operations center, or CAOC-X, at a commander's call here recently. The general was visiting the base to see on-going ACC operations and to meet the people behind the mission, he said. The CAOC-X was born from the lessons learned from Kosovo, Jumper said. "We had to do something about the lessons learned. After Kosovo, it didn't take long for a lot of the programs to sink back to where they were. We have all the tools we need to succeed, we just haven't been using them regularly." To illustrate his point, Jumper cited the differences between two types of missions. The first was to destroy a bridge outside of Belgrade, Yugoslavia; the second an air-to-air attack by an F-15 Eagle. In both cases, the process is about the same: find the target, fix upon it, track it, target it, engage it and then assess the situation, he said. In both cases, the target is destroyed, and there is nothing the enemy can do about it. However, the bridge scenario involves about a 72-hour cycle, the air-to-air attack about five minutes. "What we wondered was how to speed up the process for something such as a bridge," Jumper said. "When surveillance folks like the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System pick up a hard target can we immediately engage? That will require us to combine the capabilities we have with equipment we may need to get." The process to the future will involve obtaining a number of high-tech capabilities, Jumper said. The Air Force will need to Web-enable a number of their combat products, working with information technology professionals and corporations to get the best technology available for the war fighters to conduct business. "I envision a day when all the air operations centers will call up a central location to get program enhancements and information -- kind of like America Online," the general said. "They'll call up and we'll pass on the updates they need and send them on their way." Eventually, the general said, this will significantly reduce the number of people needed in Air Operations Centers, but the AOCs would continue to be the nerve center that they currently are. Jumper said he anticipates the day when a few people with laptops could move into a room and make a deployed center, using common software and hardware, as well as infrared devices and provide all the capabilities of an AOC. 001789. Commentary: Stay or go? by Chief Master Sgt. Glynn Ward 355th Supply Squadron DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFPN) -- Recently, a young, aggressive, energetic, and highly visible staff sergeant here came to me for some advice concerning his re-enlistment. I was surprised by his visit because I just expected this particular non-commissioned officer to be a career person and I couldn't believe he came to me for advice. This NCO is a six-year enlistee, well on track for a successful career, and is completely aware of the advantages and benefits of a military career. In fact, he didn't even want to discuss or consider benefits as part of the choice to stay or go. He was already aware of how important the benefits were to his life, but still he questioned whether he wanted to make the Air Force a career. He wanted to know and understand what would make a person stay or go. With little notice and since he caught me by surprise (I never thought he was in doubt) I could only resort to one issue. An issue very close and personal to each and every one of us ... goal achievement. I proceeded to ask him a series of questions like, "Why did you come in the Air Force?" "Since you've been in, have you satisfied your goals?" "If you have satisfied your goals, what are your new goals?" "How will, or can, you satisfy your goals if you get out?" He could not answer these questions to his own satisfaction. He certainly knew why he came in the Air Force but he could not, with all honesty, say his goals were satisfied. His goals were things like advanced education, improved financial security and travel. He had not completed the level of education he had expected to complete at this point in his career. Financially he had not saved as much as he thought he would. And Davis-Monthan was his only base, so travel certainly wasn't satisfied. So again I asked him, "How will or can you satisfy your goals if you get out?" Silence, uncertainty, and bewilderment crossed over his face. He thought he could get a good job back at home, but did not know what benefits the position provided and could not say, "I have the job." After nearly an hour-and-a-half of conversation we came to some other issues that were also bothering him. His current job, although marketable in the civilian community, was not providing the satisfaction he had expected. His office relationships were not as rewarding as he had hoped. And, he felt like he was just stagnating. Some very interesting thoughts came out as we continued to talk. The military has one great advantage over civilian jobs; all of us move at some time or the other. This is especially important when we feel less satisfied than expected, don't have positive working relationships, or just find it hard to get motivated. When we don't like our boss, one of two things eventually happen, you or your boss will move. In a civilian job, the people we work with are there until retirement unless someone quits. I shared these thoughts with him and reassured him the Air Force is more than Davis-Monthan, more than the current pool of co-workers, and more than this one job. However, each of us owns the responsibility to make the best of each situation, work on the issues causing us displeasure, and many times our perception of the situation may make things worse than they really are. He still has not decided but has extended his enlistment to accept another assignment. He has a new found excitement about this change and, who knows, maybe the Air Force will get to keep this young, aggressive, energetic, and highly-visible staff sergeant. I certainly believe the Air Force will be a much better place with him as a member. So, when you are considering the big question to stay or go, seek the advice and thoughts of others (friends, co-workers, relatives, supervisors) and don't forget to evaluate your personal goals. 001788. Kunsan social network provides Heartline to battle 'holiday blues' by Master Sgt. Will Ackerman 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea (AFPN) -- The holiday season that spans Thanksgiving through the New Year's is traditionally a time for families and friends to gather. However, for some people, the holidays are a time when they feel what is often called the "Holiday Blues." For people serving a remote tour here at Kunsan Air Base, sad and lonely feelings can be more intense because servicemembers are thousands of miles away from loved ones during the holidays. The key to effectively dealing with the "blues" is to acknowledge the feelings, take advantage of the strong social support system here and participate in unit and base holiday activities. "I encourage people here to get involved with unit activities during the holidays," said Capt. Gary Page, 8th Medical Group Counseling Services Clinical Psychologist. "It's very easy for people here to become recluses, but if you are feeling isolated or down, seek out community, religious or social services that can provide you with support and companionship. Kunsan has an unbelievable social network." One outlet for people during the holidays is a program called "Heartline." "People need positive outlets to help them adjust," said 8th Fighter Wing Chaplain (Capt.) Leslie Janovic. "That's where Heartline, a volunteer 'hotline,' can help," Kunsan Air Base's Heartline is staffed by base volunteers and operates through Jan. 3. Its goal is to boost an individual's morale by providing someone to talk to 24 hours a day, and to identify callers who might be in a crisis and need professional help. Trained volunteers are reached by dialing Kunsan's base operator and asking for Heartline. Callers can remain anonymous. Although the Heartline is available, Page said being involved with base activities or volunteering during the holiday season helps other people and can help lift an individual's spirit. "Sharing with other people is one of the most positive means to deal with feelings of separation and loneliness because you will often find that other people are experiencing the same feelings," Page said. "It's also a great way to meet new acquaintances." Although most people overcome their "holiday blues," occasionally there are people who become overwhelmed with their problems and sink into a genuine depression. The main difference is that feelings associated with the holidays are temporary, whereby true depression usually lasts six to nine months, Page said. "People who are depressed often experience physiological problems, such as sleeping only three to four hours a night, loss of appetite, lack of energy, loss of motivation and they find it an effort to do anything," Page said. Recognizing these signs early is important to helping people overcome the depression. What's more, severe depression can lead one to consider suicide if he or she feels life is too painful to bear and sees no way to alleviate the pain, Page said. When a person decides to attempt suicide, it is because, in his or her own mind, there is no other choice. The key to suicide prevention is to recognize its signs, which include an individual giving away prized possessions; putting affairs in order, including wills, etc.; telling people goodbye unexpectedly; or suddenly changing from appearing depressed to being happy or calm. The most significant danger sign is that the individual talks about suicide, Page said. If someone exhibits these signs, the first step is to ask the person about it, Page said. Most suicidal people will answer honestly because they are in pain and want help. Don't be afraid to seek help for the person. If you honestly suspect the person is suicidal, take the person to counseling services, a chaplain, the emergency room or security forces. In addition to the services listed above, there are other programs available to help people who are feeling the "blues" or depressed, Page said. These include the family support center and the health and wellness center. 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