(indistinct) - The Air Force has announced the creation of a new Information Operations technical training school. - First man, simply must arm our airmen to outtake, out perform, out partner, out innovate any potential adversary. - Air Force Basic Military Training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and legality. - The first command the Air Force Starts Here. Hey everybody welcome in to the third episode 35 of the Air Force Starts Here. Thanks for the subscribe stream or download, however you might be listening. We certainly appreciate if you got some extra time, give us a review five stars only. I'm just kidding I've said that before but certainly we would take a five star review if you've got one. I'm Dan Hawkins from the Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs Office and your host for this professional development podcast dedicated to bring you total force big a Airman inside tips, tricks and lessons learned from the recruiting training and education worlds. Today pretty neat podcast we're gonna talk about Tactical Air Control Party training at the 353rd Special Warfare Training Squadron. We're talking with technical Sergeant Scott Eubanks. He's the flight chief for block four of the initial skills training for all TACPs and he is gonna talk about a pretty cool thing. It's called the Joint Terminal Control Training Rehearsal System. It's in essence a virtual reality system to help the new TACP students learn how to interact with aircraft, where in the past, the only way to do that was to be at a live range, actually calling in airstrikes and dropping in ordinance and now you can do that using virtual reality and so we're gonna talk with Sergeant Eubanks about what the JTAC simulator is. They call it just the SIM. We're gonna talk about the specific capabilities of the system and really the goal of those systems ultimately to make a more well rounded Joint Terminal Attack Controller which is a DoD certification. And so this system that has been in place since the end of 2019, really speaks to what Second Air Force is trying to do General Tullos and her team to transform technical training using things like immersive technology, such as virtual reality and so for these new enlisted and officer TACP candidates, the opportunity to use a system that they have access to, devices that simulate radios, global positioning systems, binoculars and arrange binder and help them communicate with the aircraft in kind of that immersed 360 degree view world is pretty cool and Sergeant Eubanks is going to talk to all of that and much more. So let's get to it Episode 35 of The Air Force Starts Here launches right now. - So my name is Sergeant Scott Eubanks. I've been in Air Force for 16 years. I am the black core flight chief at the TACP apprentice course here in Lackland Air Force Base. Previously, I just came from Fort Drum, New York at the 20th day sauce. I have four deployments to Afghanistan, two to Iraq the two direct were both JTAC deployments. - So now you're at the 353rd Special Warfare Training Squadron as a Tactical Air Control Party instructor tell us a little bit about the 353rd and what it is you do on a everyday basis there training the next generation of TACPs. - So the 350 per third, a Special Warfare Training Squadron. We provide basic skills to new TACPs. So we have 106 training days and we have four blocks of instruction between those 106 days. Block one is typically your radio programming procedures cause if you don't have radios you can't do our job. Block two is more of the vehicle and ground. Combat skills navigation is heavy in that block. Block three be more you're repelling, your small unit tactics. He's finally block four is the CAS execution template or requesting CAS as well as a joint and their first doctrine. - So CAS for those who might be listening who don't know exactly what that is, that's calling in for a Close Air Support and that gets me to my next question about what it is that you do as TACPs and doing the Joint Terminal Air, what is it that you do to support the Air Force mission? - So TACPs are all JTAC qualified now, JTAC is Joint Terminal Attack Controller which is a DoD certification. It allows qualified members to direct the action of Combat Aircraft, engaging closer support and what we do is we coordinate with the Graham Newberry commanders as well as the aircraft in the sky to kind of provide the best route to destroy targets and within weapon hearing or prior coordination. - Yeah and so obviously your job probably a lot more than many others, obviously a lot of folks in the Air Force do joint missions and we were seeming to do more joint missions every single day but really isn't that the very essence of what you guys do working with the other services and even other nations militaries? - Yes, so we are TACPs for the most part on the conventional side are all stationed at army posts. Like I was at Fort Drum so that we can integrate with the units that we're gonna to deploy with and it's a very important part of the job. - Yeah and almost aren't you guys like army units, best friends sometimes. - Oh yeah The Army always comes, makes fun as the Air Force guys but when they realize what we do they kind of spend more time with us getting noticed. - So you guys have recently introduced a new way of doing training inside the TACP Schoolhouse that allows students to interact, in terms of how they talk with and communicate with aircraft that hasn't always been done at the Schoolhouse in this particular way and it's called the Joint Terminal Control Training Rehearsal System. Can you talk to what that really stands for and what you guys use it for? - Yeah so the, as we call it the SIM or the JTC-TRS is a way for us to populate scenarios that we can normally not do just going out to observation posts and playing notional aircraft. So a student can go into a scenario where they are providers a situation where they can destroy targets and talk with an actual person flying an aircraft, and they can actually see their effects on real time instead of hey that vehicle just blew up sort of thing. - Sure and so in the past, really, the only way you could do that was to be at a live range and so when did this idea to start using this virtual reality capability in the Schoolhouse come about? - So we started using this in October, 2019, whenever we completely revamped the Schoolhouse and added that block four. - So and for those who may not know the actual resources needed to actually go to a live range to actually call in an airstrike or to drop ordinance, the sheer cost, I mean, that's a pretty labor intensive deal. So having this kind of capability baked into your training curriculum and in your Schoolhouse is a pretty big boon for the unit. - Yes, definitely and I mean, with the way things are going nowadays, CAS TDYs are dwindling so having that simulator provides our guys the way of, still maintaining their skills and currencies and while getting better. - So is this something that students have the ability to do a lot of training on before they actually go out, to their field training exercises at JBSA Lackland as part of the training? How does this work? Is it embedded throughout the course kind of building to a climax at the end with the FTX? So how does this process look? - So whenever they get to block four, which they really don't use the simulator before then, we start teaching them teaching in executing, [indistinct] nine lines, [indistinct] five lines in the cast execution template. We also use it to have something to transmit the 1972 or the joint tasking air requests. So in block four, we try to do as much as possible. First we have to tell them, hey, this is a simulator and kind of go through how it all works, all the new equipment that they're exposed to but this gives them a lot of opportunity to get hands on experience before they go to their units and are expecting to use this stuff to maintain currencies or upgrade to become JTAC. - So what does this look like in execution? So how is it set up? Are the students and the instructors in the same room, are there separate areas where they're communicating via a headset? How does this actually work? - So the room we have, there's actually four different stations and one station pretty much looks like a table with monitors on it. On the left hand position is the person who plays the pilot or slides the aircraft. There's a throttle on his left side and a stick on his right to that pilots. Right is the actual SIM operator and the person who runs a scenario, populates different enemy or surface to air threats. He can also calculate, he can put in all their permission for artillery, call for fire and have the rounds impact the may a realistic position. Now in front of that table, is where the person actually going through the same sets and there's a television screen, looks like a 65 inch screen with two external speakers so that we can play gunshots, explosions, people talking, stuff like that. Now there's a binocular system that we use that has all a lot of equipment that the trainee can utilize to derive charting information, or they can use it for a terminal guidance operations for lasing and bombs. There's a laser target designator, a puller for pocket laser range finder, Binos, there's all sorts of stuff in those binoculars. Now the last piece is gonna be, there's a little rucksack with the screen on top of it. Now the headgear is a Rover that they can actually get a handshake or get a leak with the aircraft's system that their pod that can actually look so we can see what they're seeing. There's also a dagger GPS that the buttons actually, whenever you push your buttons it would be like using a dagger for real, and also, there's a radio that they can manipulate to program different channels and switch between their nets. Now they communicate together by headsets and there's a little foot pedal that they push on to a transmit. - So, it's my understanding that the simulator gives the students the ability to communicate with the aircraft and then also face enemies that attack them. So how in depth are these scenarios using this JTC-TRS? - It can be as complex as you want it. I mean, we have ways stressing our students out beforehand so we may get in there. The adrenaline's already going as far as, there's different types of scenarios, there's major combat operations where it's just like lines of enemy tanks engaging each other and you have to do it that way or we can do the corner counterinsurgency where you're in the middle of an urban environment and you have to target a specific building with the targets inside there sort of thing. So there's a full spectrum of stuff we can do with this. - Yeah and what I found really interesting is it's not just visually, but there's also the sound aspect to simulate things like ordinance and actual aircraft sounds in flight. So what does that do for the students in terms of realism? - So it kind of gives them a 360 view of what's going on. Not only safe for sound, there's a controller that they can use to kinda like look around but you can definitely tell when a aircraft is coming over your right shoulder compared to your left shoulder and explosions, like if you are getting shot at, you can definitely tell and you could see when your weapons impact and hear it as well. - And so ultimately at the end of the day, the bottom line is, this is really just yet another tool really to hopefully make your students more well rounded as JTACs before they head out to Siri and airborne and then their operational units. - That's correct and they'll be using this their entire career and more, we're seeing more and more their capability to actually get their egos in a dome SIM. - What does that mean in the dome SIM? - So dome SIM is a, it's exactly sounds like here we have a TV screen, but dome SIM is just a dome that they walk into and it's pretty much-- I can't remember the exact degrees that goes around but they can just look around and they're immersed in this environment. - Okay and so what has been the feedback and I guess I'll start with the instructors first in terms of incorporating this into the curriculum? - So we have, let's see four stations, so there's eight instructors in here anytime running through these scenarios and it gets to a student exposed to different things that they won't see when we go out to the FTX. So we're able to progress them in their training a little bit more if we didn't have it. And not only that instructors are able to get in here and actually jump into a scenario to get help and maintain what the skills that they already have so that when we go back operational, we're not like so far behind, it's gonna be difficult to catch up. - Right, so almost like a way to somewhat stay proficient even though you're in the Schoolhouse and do something that's outside of just teaching. So a great tool for instructors as well but I also very curious, what has been the take of the students? How much have they enjoyed the incorporation of the virtual reality into the training? - Students can't get enough of it, they want to keep going into it. Unfortunately, we don't have enough hours, I guess they're so used to playing video games is pretty much like playing a more advanced video game, so they really into it. - Yeah and that's really the age of the future as we transform technical training and obviously the use of immersive technology, just curious from a tracking perspective, like for students, is there good feedback that you guys can gain from the system on individual students that really helps you as instructors evaluate maybe where the student's weak areas are in terms of data gained or anything like that that you guys can use? - We don't track that too much. We try to get them the basic skills and stacks so that whenever we go out to the FTX and give them their progress checks that they'll be able to pass the minimum level, but further on down the line when they leave here, that's when they can use those data points actually, helping progressing that person's weak points. - So I'm just curious to what has been the... and this, this is an opinion question, your opinion of how the field, how have they reacted to knowing that the students that the initial training pipeline course are getting this more in depth training? - In my opinion, the students that we're producing at the TACP Schoolhouse nowadays are far more advanced than any students we've ever had. That includes myself. The things that we do with them go far beyond whatever I was taught. So whenever they get to units, they're able to just jump in there and they're going to be ready to progress into pre RCT and JTAC QC for a long, - Well, we certainly appreciate you taking some time out today to explain the role of virtual reality training now with the JTC-TRS and I know there's a lot of changes still ahead for TACP training as the pipeline continues to change and really be transformed probably from, even back in the day obviously like you mentioned when you went to TAC training. How exciting is it for you to be an instructor and what would you say to maybe your fellow TACPs out there who have thought about trying to come and be an instructor? What do you like about being an instructor? - Those who know me, they know that I was made for this. Do you know being able to see a guy start block four and what he's able to accomplish by the time he graduates is just, it makes me proud. I love this career field and I love to make these new guys into what they are. - Yeah, we appreciate what you do very much as well. So, hey, Sergeant Eubanks thanks for taking some time out and joining us today on the pod. We really appreciate it. - Thanks for having me (upbeat music) - Just a ton of goodness happening at the TACP course after 353rd Special Warfare Training Squadron and of course that's at Joint Base, San Antonio Lackland, part of The Special Warfare Training wing and so many great initiatives happening in Second Air Force to transform tactical training and the use of immersive technology and making it more learner centric is just one of the things that is exciting about being in the first command right now is our airmen learning in ways that we probably never would have imagined. So special thanks to Sergeant Eubanks for spending some time with us today. As a reminder, you can follow our education and training command and the AETC Command Team on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can catch up on all our latest AETC news on our website at www.aetc.af.mil. For our entire AETC public affairs team, I'm Dan Hawkins so long, we'll talk to you next time on The Air Force Starts Here.