F-35 TRAINING SQUADRON IS ALIVE AND WELL

Okay folks, if you think the Army’s Special Forces Group is going to make an impact to the area, look out. The F-35 Training Squadron is alive and well and moving forward briskly. The permanent party folks (i.e. Instructors, Maintainers, support personnel) are coming in and beginning to set up shop. As you might know, the new By-Pass near the entrance to the gate of the Training Facility shoots straight to Crestview. I expect Senator Gaetz, who was instrumental in getting the money for this project saw the writing on the wall. If you need details on the structure of this group of folks, just give me a call. Some details of this program was released today (see below).

33rd Fighter Wing shows off progress to local officials
Mona Moore
2010-12-14 18:32:20
EGLIN AFB — A sign along Nomad Way that keeps track of the 33rd Fighter Wing’s flight training goals has read “0” for long enough. The Nomads will be flying F-16s by mid-January and training for F-35s on flight simulators in the coming months. The four F-16s will be used as fighter support aircraft. Col. David Hlatky, commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, said pilots will sharpen their skills in the F-16s instead of jumping into the F-35s cold turkey. “We ain’t turned a wheel on this side of the base in a while … a lot of new people,” Hlatky said before briefing Okaloosa County leaders Tuesday morning. “So we need to get used to flying as a team and I’d rather do it with an airplane that we know a lot about than an airplane that we’re going to be learning some things about as we get started.” During the gradual build-up of F-35s at the base, the F-16s will serve as chaser airplanes during trainingHlatky said the F-16s will be a short-term solution. He expects they will be used for about a year. Okaloosa officials received a briefing before their tour. Hlatky said the wing has requested that flight training operations be split between Choctaw Field, Duke Field and Eglin Main. The timetable for accepting students and receiving the F-35s has not been determined. The school will train about 1,000 students a year in programs that will take between four and seven months to complete. Since the start of the Joint Strike Fighter Integrated Training Center construction, Wing officials have become seasoned tour guides, offering sneak peeks to local and national officials. “Members of our board of commissioners think of themselves as ambassadors to Team Eglin and this will help us inform others in the community,” County Administrator Jim Curry said. Construction is being completed in stages. As the base broke ground on the training center, dining facility, track, dorms and a memorial to the victims of the Khobar Towers, some of the existing buildings were repurposed into temporary classrooms and facilities for fitting pilots for new flight apparatus. One phase of the dorms has been completed. The three-story building’s 144 rooms will house 288 students. Additional dorms are expected to be included in future budgets. The tour included a peak at the Academic Training Center, the Department of Defense’s 26,000-square-foot schoolhouse for future F-35 maintainers and pilots. Hlatky said the Academic Training Center building is the size of six football fields. He compared some of the building’s secured areas to the elaborate opening sequence of the old television show “Get Smart.” The rooms that will house simulators and classified pilot classrooms include a series of security systems, corridors and locked doors. Even doors to stairwells have security codes. The tour also included a look at the dining facility and the 58th Fighter Squadron’s operations building. County Commissioner Bill Roberts said he was impressed by the university campus atmosphere. The training center, dining facility and dorms were designed to provide that atmosphere and were built within walking distance of each other. “I think it’s going to be such a special atmosphere for the guys,” Roberts said. “It’s just going to make it more enjoyable for them.” For all of the progress the 33rd Fighter Wing has made, “the wow factor” actually is the team of JSF training instructors and administrators that has spent months working to prepare the school for future students, according to Hlatky. Representatives from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have come together for the same goal. “It’s noses to the ground. It’s meetings at 10 at night. It’s working and traveling Sundays so you can get the only Monday morning appointment that person has available,” Hlatky said. “That’s the wow factor.”