ST JOSEPH, Mo. - The Air Force Reserve Command’s top leader visited Airmen at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base, here April 18 to gain a better understanding of an important Air Force training mission.
“The things that are happening here are on the leading edge of some of the kinds of things I see happening in the future,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner Jr., the chief of Air Force Reserve and commander, Air Force Reserve Command.
Stenner toured the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center at the 139th Airlift Wing before speaking at the town-hall-style meeting.
The AATTC provides advanced tactical training for Air Force Reserve Command aircrews, as well as for the Air National Guard, active duty Air Force, Marine Corps and 16 allied nations.
The center’s total force cadre is considered the “Tactics Center of Excellence” for the air mobility forces.
“I got a much better idea of the depth and breadth of what happens here at Saint Joe,” Stenner said. “It was excellent.”
At least 115 Reserve Command servicemembers attended training at the AATTC last year.
They, and hundreds of other aircrew, learned from a variety of courses, including air mobility intelligence, night-vision low altitude flying, air mobility tactics, aircrew combat flying and tactics, and electronic warfare, among several others.
“I did not know the scope of the courses that were being taught,” Stenner said. Adding, he also learned that international students train here each year.
He called the AATTC a “good example” of the “strong” relationship between Reserve Command, the Air Guard and the active duty Air Force and that such junctures provide the nation an “efficient” total Air Force.
The Reserve Command’s interest at the AATTC will grow as it forms new intelligence squadrons and as the need for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability grows overall, Stenner said.
“The strength that comes from all three components working together at this location gives us an opportunity to do it even better,” he said.