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Officials: Longer BMT reduces washout rate

Fewer trainees are dropping out of Air Force basic military training, the result of adding two weeks to what had been a 6½-week program, according to new statistics from the service.

The lower attrition rate supports the findings of the Air Force’s first triennial review of the overhauled training, which now focuses more on war-fighting skills. Conducting the review, which took place May 12-14, were command chiefs of the major commands and Reserve command chiefs, as well as Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy and the Air Force’s director of force development, Daniel Sitterly. The committee members evaluated behavioral and military training, life management skills, and war and expeditionary skills training.

“The main purpose of the 8½-week program [was it] allows us to create a warrior mindset in the trainees themselves,” said Col. Shane Courville, commander of BMT at the 737th Training Group at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

The longer training went into effect in December 2008, about a year after the Air Force conducted its last triennial review of BMT and decided to extend the program.

Air Education and Training Command, based at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, expects an annual attrition rate of 7.5 percent, nearly 3,100 of the 42,000 recruits who go through BMT each year.

Under the shorter training, the attrition rate hovered in the 8 percent range from fiscal 2004 to fiscal 2008, except when it shot up to 10.6 percent in fiscal 2007. The rate for fiscal 2009, the first year after the overhaul, was 6.3 percent; the numbers in since Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, so far put the 2010 rate at 5.7 percent.

“The 8½-week program has reduced the attrition rate below our target for the first time in seven years,” Courville told Air Force Times in an interview June 2. “We have more time to mentor them, teach them.”

The review allowed leaders to discuss — at length — the overhauled training, an opportunity that Courville welcomed.

“It was a good, thorough look at where we’re going,” he said. “It’s important [because] the foundation we give to our enlisted folks starts here.”

During the three-day review, leaders also discussed ways to improve training and development for military training instructors and what other types of training to add to BMT, Courville said.

For the first time in at least a decade, BMT has no openings for military training instructors, or MTIs, Courville said. All 560 jobs are filled. In April 2009, the training group had 320 MTIs and 240 openings. Courville credited Roy with making it a priority to fill the billets.

“One of my priorities is to develop the MTIs throughout their four-year tour,” Courville said.

One recommendation from the review, Courville said, is MTI Deliberate Development Flight, a program to create more training and leadership opportunities for MTIs along with a database to track their progress and accomplishments. The effort could be launched sometime in September.

“MTI school is seven weeks long, and that’s all [the training] we really have now,” Courville said.

Among the other requests that the review looked at: cyber training, hand-to-hand combat training and cross-cultural competency training. Committee members also received updates on character development, environmental management and energy awareness, the BMT fitness program and the Thrift Savings Plan, according to Courville.

All recommendations have been submitted, and officials await final approval from Gen. Stephen Lorenz, the commander of AETC. Courville expects to receive approval by late June.

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