Perceived transfer of basic combat skills training in the US Air Force.(INSIDE LOGISTICS: EXPLORING THE HEART OF LOGISTICS)(Report)

Introduction

In early 2003, during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, many airmen, including those in certain support career fields, were deployed to hostile environments such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Deployments of this nature were a departure from normal Air Force operations where support personnel were normally far from the front lines of battle, (1) thus placing support airmen, especially those in logistics related career fields, at greater direct risk of participating in tactical ground operations. (2)

According to Major Barry Lineback, (3) "The battlefield makes rigorous physical, psychological, and moral demands that require both tangible and intangible qualities." Defining and studying these tangible and intangible qualities are important since the use of combat skills by logistics personnel is becoming increasingly necessary. A Headquarters Air Force coordinated white paper entitled, Long-Term Integration of Expeditionary Airmen Concepts into the Air Force, questioned whether the Air Force is effectively indoctrinating, training, educating, and sustaining combat readiness [for all support airmen] over the entire course of their career. (4) To address these issues, the Expeditionary Combat Airmen Integrated Process Team (ECA IPT) was created by the Directorate of Security Forces and Force Protection. (5) According to a draft charter for the ECA IPT, the purpose of the IPT was to " provide direction to determine current combat skills for the ECA, current training support, the training gap, and recommend training and education to close the gap." (6)

To date, there has been little research to guide the development of a formal Air Force basic combat skills training program or to address the factors affecting the transfer of those skills from the classroom to the battlefield. To address this deficit, we conducted a study to provide a working operational definition of Air Force basic combat skills and to determine the perceptions of support airmen and their ability to transfer skills from the classroom to the battlefield. Evaluating training in terms of actual results and behavior change is crucial because training basic combat skills is a multifaceted and complex task. As such, this study analyzed those factors that affected the transfer of five specific basic combat skills.

Review of Literature

Training

Training has been defined as a planned learning experience designed to bring about a permanent change in an individual's knowledge, attitudes, or skills (7) as cited in Noe. (8) Only recently have organizations begun to recognize that the knowledge base of their employees can be a key source of sustainable competitive advantage. (9) As examples, civilian corporations reportedly spent over $80B on formal training programs in 2004, (10) while the Air Force planned to spend over $9M in basic combat convoy training alone in 2005. (11) Additionally, new technology creates an increasingly globalized work environment, adding new pressures to improve the quality of services and products to stay competitive. (12) Training has been an essential part of both civilian (13) and military organizations throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. (14)