KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- For the 334th Training Squadron Operating Location Alpha at Offutt Air Force Base, training never stops.
The mission of the 334th TRS/OL-A is to train, equip and empower Command and Control Operations and Cyber Defense Operations specialties with capable and competent Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications operators and maintainers to ensure global deterrence.
The schoolhouse provides specialized follow-on training to Airmen who, at any rank and any point in their career, are stationed at nuclear positions. By hosting the course at the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command, the detachment can make strategic updates to course content.
“This unit is geographically separated because the information taught in it comes directly from USSTRATCOM,” said Master Sgt. Robert Tanner, 334th TRS/OL-A superintendent. “With the information ever evolving, we can rewrite the core of the content annually. Being collocated increases our efficiency and allows for easy transfer of updated procedures.”
Students at the detachment learn everything, from receiving, processing, building and transmitting control orders while regulating forces, to maintaining equipment and an effective training program.
Being geographically separated comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
“The biggest advantage to being at Offutt is the ability to access the materials needed to write the course content by walking across the street to USSTRATCOM,” said Tanner. “We can also showcase Keesler’s professional image to the host unit. One disadvantage is that we can’t have face-to-face conversations with our peer instructors and leadership, but we get great support from our unit at Keesler at all levels. The leadership we have now has done a great job incorporating us into everything they can, and we truly feel like we are a part of the Keesler family.”