Categories
News

Lodging building opens at Air Guard’s education center

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. -- The I.G. Brown Training and Education Center’s new lodging building, January 12, 2022, opened this month on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in East Tennessee. The 2,400 square foot building provides a large lobby area for customer service and room check-in/check-out for personnel attending enlisted professional military education in-residence training programs, professional continuing education, and base unit training assemblies. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

The I.G. Brown Training and Education Center’s new lodging building opened on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in East Tennessee this month.

The 2,400 square foot building provides a large lobby area for customer service and room check-in/check-out for personnel attending enlisted professional military education in-residence training programs, professional continuing education, and base unit training assemblies.

TEC lodging includes 346 single and double occupancy rooms.

The brown brick building resides above the student parking lot on the eastern edge of the campus, out front and visible to arriving personnel. The location allows delivery drivers and others to park vehicles nearby without using pedestrian sidewalks, among many other improvements and additions. Its southeast entrance lets in ample morning sunlight and views of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Officials said that they plan to convert the former billeting office at the Moon Hall dormitory building into increased dorm and support facilities, which will improve operational capacity.

Categories
News

Airmen Crate medical equipment for Refugees [Repost]

With the 30th anniversary of the end of the cold war last week, I thought about this 2004 feature I wrote at the closed Plattsburgh Air Force Base. Winning the Cold War took uncountable sacrifices and missions from service members at those since shuttered bases and scrapped Navy ships, which now remain in veterans’ memories. BTW, please tell your representatives that they deserve an official Cold War federal service medal, not a print-from-home certificate.

eartheditor

By Staff Sgt. Mike R. Smith, Guard Times Staff

PLATTSBURGH AIR FORCE BASE, N.Y. — With a hospital full of dusty medical equipment, thousands of refugees needing medical treatment, and the Gulf of Mexico in between, a small mission upstate recently called upon Airmen to aid in a miracle.

“I feel blessed to have met this group,” Sister Deb said. She looks across the broken down remains of what was once an emergency room as sharp clanking and banging sounds echo through an open doorway on her right. Something large and heavy is being lifted.

View original post 980 more words

Categories
News

Air Guard education center’s 2021 year-in-review

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — The Air National Guard's I.G. Brown Training and Education Center year-in-review for 2021. (U.S. Air National Guard photo illustration by Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — The I.G. Brown Training and Education Center navigated the year through reduced pandemic restrictions and returning in-resident classes, staff and leadership changes, VIP visits, and continual curriculum and campus renovations to finish 2021 with outstanding achievements.

Continue reading “Air Guard education center’s 2021 year-in-review”
Categories
commentary

Commentary: Today’s differences from Cold War service on 30th milestone

(Air National Guard file photo)

This week, the dwindling veterans still serving in the military who experienced the Cold War first-hand may recall their true tales in winning it 30 years ago.

Continue reading “Commentary: Today’s differences from Cold War service on 30th milestone”
Categories
commentary

Commentary: Permission and space to do nothing

An autumn afternoon at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center campus, November 9, 2021, on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, just outside the Great Smoky Mountains, in East Tennessee. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

For the would-be meditator, find your space to breathe and do nothing. It’s good for you as well as for the mission.

When the leaves on the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center colored the campus recently in their brilliant rust and gold fall blanket, I could not help but look outside to feel their glow spread out from our foothills view of the Great Smoky Mountains.

I decided to leave my desk and step out for a moment, taking my camera along, with no particular route around the base of what I would see.

Continue reading “Commentary: Permission and space to do nothing”
Categories
commentary

Chief Carbon, the Air Guard’s 3rd senior enlisted leader, lives on

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Bernard Carbon’s portrait and biography, far right, accompanies a display highlighting the Air National Guard's 13 senior enlisted advisors and command chiefs from 1975 in a hallway at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center campus in East Tennessee. These chief master sergeants serve as the top advisors on the enlisted force to the Director of the Air National Guard. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

By a chance social media post, I learned about the death of retired U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Bernard Carbon; it is a loss of one of the Air National Guard’s great enlisted leaders.

Chief Carbon’s biography and image are displayed on a wall here, at the Air National Guard’s training and education center in East Tennessee, which shows all 13 of the Air National Guard’s Command Chief Master Sergeants, since the position began in 1975.

Continue reading “Chief Carbon, the Air Guard’s 3rd senior enlisted leader, lives on”
Categories
News

Instructor gathers her resiliency with goats, chickens

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. — U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Renee Wiederspahn, a professional military education instructor at the Lankford Enlisted PME Center in East Tennessee, spends time with her pigmy goats and chickens as a means of rest and relaxation. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — With so many changes and demands Airmen face in their service these days, it can get challenging to disconnect and recharge to maintain resiliency. The U.S. Air Force wants healthy and ready minds, but it is also up to service members to find what best refuels them and give attention to it.

Tech. Sgt. Renee Wiederspahn, a professional military education instructor at the Lankford Enlisted PME Center in East Tennessee, decided to get some goats and chickens during the pandemic.

Continue reading “Instructor gathers her resiliency with goats, chickens”
Categories
News

Air Guard education center now offers Airmen CEU credits for some classes

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — U.S. Air Force Airmen in the Air National Guard Instructor Certification Program take a class photo with their instructors at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center campus, March 11, 2021, on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in East Tennessee. The students graduate on Friday, March 12. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — Students enrolled in the Air National Guard training and education center’s Instructor Certification Program can now earn Continuing Education Units, a measure used to maintain licenses or certifications with civilian employers.

The I.G. Brown Training and Education Center’s TEC University in East Tennessee said that ICP graduates would receive 7.6 CEUs through a partnership with Pellissippi State Community College.

Continue reading “Air Guard education center now offers Airmen CEU credits for some classes”
Categories
News

Airmen return to classrooms for Leadership School

U.S. Air Force Airmen enrolled in Airman Leadership School listen to indoctrination briefings, June 7, 2021, during their first day of in-resident classes on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in East Tennessee. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — U.S. Air Force Airmen returned for in-residence classes with the Lankford Enlisted Professional Military Education Center in East Tennessee this week after more than a year’s in-person absence at the Air National Guard’s primary training and education campus.

More than 80 Senior Airmen enrolled in Airman Leadership School began 24 academic days of study with morning briefings and indoctrination on June 7. They were the first EPME class since pandemic health precautions suspended in-resident learning in early 2020.

Continue reading “Airmen return to classrooms for Leadership School”
Categories
commentary

Service leader’s scrapbooks provide communication lessons

Scrapbooks of U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. I.G. Brown, the first Director of the Air National Guard, maintained from 1962 to 1974, contain select correspondence, speeches, and images. Stored at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee, they hold hundreds of documents. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)

I recently took some time to read through hundreds of telegrams and letters placed in an extensive scrapbook collection by the Air National Guard’s first Director, now on file with the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in East Tennessee.

TEC is named after U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. I.G. Brown. He led the Air National Guard for nearly a dozen years – first as the National Guard Bureau’s Assistant Chief for Air in 1962.

Continue reading “Service leader’s scrapbooks provide communication lessons”