[Sorry for current posting delays -- I'm still involved in a total move of furniture & household goods to a new town and new home. By myself.]
The last half of my Nav Instructor teaching tour assigned me to the Course Development and Instructional Systems Development Branches of the Undergraduate Navigational Training school. I wound up becoming one of the best-trained young officers on-base schooled in SAT (Systems Approach to Training) and ISD (Instructional Systems Development). We were just beginning to rewrite the complete nav training program using the principles and procedures of those cutting-edge education-development systems! Long story short, the job at the squadron level turned into a Wing Staff-level job for 3 of us very young Captains. We were becoming the 3 key project managers of the development of a complete rewrite of the 9-month long (6-15 hours per day) USAF Navigation Training program. We were to use the Systems Approach to develop ALL the instruction for a 9-month training program to include much academic (classroom "platform") instruction, simulator training mission scenarios, part-task trainer & learning center (multimedia) missions, and 40 inflight training missions and instruction.
This was the only place in the world where USAF navigators were taught how to navigate aircraft. We also trained air navigation students from many foreign countries (I had Vietnamese, Danish, and German AF students.) Air navigation is more difficult & dangerous than surface or sea navigation because an airplane travels much faster (200 - 600+ MPH) than water or ground vehicles! Life-or-death decisions to keep aircraft in safe areas/routes/altitudes are part of every military flight. Correct navigation is certainly a critically-important part of every flight -- the life or death of MANY people (not just the aircrew members) depend on it.
By being in a Wing Staff position, we still performed one or two days' flight duties per week and ratio instructor duties for trainers. But all our other time was so filled with re-writing and revising and coordinating other re-writers of instructional materials, we had no time to do "platform teaching" anymore, and were relieved of those duties which were the responsibilities of squadron-level instructors. The whole Nav Training program was under a very, tight suspense to get all the new training materials developed in conjunction with each other and with the Systems Approach and off to printing presses all over the country in order to be able to produce all the instructor manuals, student study guides and other printed materials for each course needed for student use in about 18 months (when the new jet navigation-trainer aircraft would arrive to start training students.)
The T-43 was a completely new aircraft coming into the AF inventory and it didn't even have a "Dash-1" technical order in existence for reference to write the instructional materials when we first started writing the new program. The plane was being built as we were writing the program so there were constant rewrites dictated by revisions to and further development of the airplane. Granted, the T-43's basic superstructure and flying systems were those of a Boeing 737 so, at first glance, a pilot writing the Request For Proposals to acquire the new aircraft might think it would be easy to use as a training aircraft. Yes, easy to train the 2 rated pilots who had to fly 12 navigation students and their nav instructors because the PILOTS' systems were primarily identical to commercial airlines' Boeing-737 flight & aircraft systems.
However, the MISSION of the aircraft was to train 12+ nonrated navigation students on each flight so they could BECOME rated navigators, awarded their wings certifying competency to fly and navigate safely without supervision. The location and appearance of each piece of new modern navigation equipment for each student nav position was only a flat drawing on a lifesize blueprint when we started writing this program. We started at least a year behind where we needed to be because there were no operating manuals on any of the the new navigation equipment which filled the mission-relevant portion of the new aircraft. For months, there were no written operating procedures for us to turn into training materials for even how to turn each piece of student nav equipment on. I am omitting many details here. The only way the new nav program got completed on time I attribute to endless extra hours throughout TWO YEARS OF UNPAID OVERTIME BY MANY DEDICATED YOUNG OFFICERS WHO WERE INSTRUCTOR NAVS WRITING THE PROGRAM. I'm talking 60 - 80 hours per week regularly worked by many young officers who had wives and families whose lives were also sacrificed to put this program into operation on time.
If you haven't been in the military in the last 40 years, you probably don't realize how much of their "spare time" U.S. military people have to voluntarily sacrifice to do the best possible job to keep your country's defense robust for your protection. The military doesn't pay anyone for overtime work, and I didn't get any medal out of 4 years of long, hard work. But I am proud to have put an excellent 9-month training program into being "from scratch." I learned so much about putting an education & training program together, I know I could do a great job as a University Dean or CEO anywhere. But, I will have to be satisfied with just remembering my students and other friends. I have always cared warmly about my students and I loved teaching them. I think they probably remember me fondly, too.
posted by Richard A @ 4:19 PM
