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AF teams with Canada on military education

The Air Force wants to establish a permanent enlisted professional military education partnership with its comrades to the north.

Led by Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy, who visited Canada late last year to kick-start the effort, the partnership is designed to provide more opportunity to enlisted airmen, and could lead to similar partnerships with other countries.

“Our young enlisted and our senior enlisted are cast in a myriad of roles around the world,” said Chief Master Sgt. Brye McMillon, command chief of Air University at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala. “Our exposure to [the Canadian] education system … makes a better [noncommissioned officer] and enlisted member.”

The partnership formalizes an effort to cross-train Canadian and U.S. airmen. The Canadian air force already sends some students to Senior NCO Academy at Maxwell. A Canadian instructor teaches there, and a U.S. Air Force instructor teaches at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario.

“This is the next logical step. … These exchanges help us work together closer as two nations,” Roy said.

The first group of exchange students likely won’t be in their neighboring nation’s classrooms for another year. Officials are comparing U.S. and Canadian professional military education programs, as part of an equivalency study, to make sure they are compatible.

“We want them to receive the credit they would if they attended the course in their own country,” McMillon said.

The equivalency study is now focused at the Senior NCO Academy level, but the hope is to align all levels of enlisted professional military education, said Chief Master Sgt. Alex Perry, commandant of the Senior NCO Academy.

“Ideally we’ll be able to do a cross-flow and exchange at all our levels of PME,” he said.

Chief Warrant Officer Stephane Guy, of the Canadian Defense Academy, said he envisions one or two American NCOs at each of the Canadians’ three senior NCO courses.

“We run these courses four times a year and probably are able to receive one or two [NCOs] per course,” he said. “That’s the goal at this time.”

The program will help airmen gain exposure to other air forces, and will offer different views on participating in a multination force, Air Force officials said.

“We employ our people around the world sometimes in places where they don’t have any experience. This just makes a more prepared airman,” McMillon said.