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.
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. – U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Chad Raduege, the director of Cyberspace and Information Dominance, and chief information officer for Headquarters Air Combat Command,, speaks to graduates of the Cyber Protect and Defend Course, Feb. 17, 2021, during a ceremony at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee. After six weeks of learning, they are the first official graduating class on campus and part of the total Air Force’s Mission Defense Team training. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. – U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Eric Leslie is recognized as the outstanding contributor during the Cyber Protect and Defend Course graduation ceremony, Feb. 17, 2021, at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee.. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — Students join leaders, February 17, 2021, during the U.S. Air Force Cyber Protect and Defend Course graduation ceremony held at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center 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 Lt. Col. Michael Scott, the cyber-course commandant, provides the closing remarks for the Cyber Protect and Defend Course graduation ceremony, Feb. 17, 2021, at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. – Robert Wells is recognized as a distinguished graduate during the Cyber Protect and Defend Course graduation ceremony, Feb. 17, 2021, at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center 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 Staff Sgt. Matthew Crittenden is recognized as a distinguished graduate during the Cyber Protect and Defend Course graduation ceremony, Feb. 17, 2021, at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center 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 students noted for academic achievement stand on the stage with leaders, Feb. 17, 2021, during the U.S. Air Force Cyber Protect and Defend Course graduation ceremony held at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee. Their ceremony broadcasted online and featured guest speaker U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Chad Raduege, the director of Cyberspace and Information Dominance, and chief information officer for Headquarters Air Combat Command. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. – U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Chad Raduege, the director of Cyberspace and Information Dominance, and chief information officer for Headquarters Air Combat Command,, speaks to graduates of the Cyber Protect and Defend Course, Feb. 17, 2021, during a ceremony at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee. After six weeks of learning, they are the first official graduating class on campus and part of the total Air Force’s Mission Defense Team training. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. –U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Chad Raduege, the director of Cyberspace and Information Dominance, and chief information officer for Headquarters Air Combat Command,, speaks to graduates of the Cyber Protect and Defend Course February 17, 2021, during a ceremony at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee. After six weeks of learning, they are the first official graduating class on campus and part of the total Air Force’s Mission Defense Team training. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. – U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Chad Raduege, the director of Cyberspace and Information Dominance, and chief information officer for Headquarters Air Combat Command, spoke as guest speaker for graduates of the Cyber Protect and Defend Course, February 17, during a ceremony at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center in East Tennessee.
After six weeks of learning, the Airmen and Space Force Guardians were the first official graduating class on the campus and part of the Mission Defense Team training.
TEC is the Air National Guard’s total force training and education provider.
The Air National Guard training and education center in East Tennessee designed a new organizational challenge coin. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
The Air National Guard’s training and education center in East Tennessee is marketing its identity and strategy with a new challenge coin as it shifts mission, values, and image.
This month, the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center began using the coins as means of recognizing its contributors and performers. It is in addition to the commander’s coin awarded in those merits.
Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass answers questions during a teleconference February 1, 2021, with nearly 300 Airmen enrolled virtually in NCO Academy and Airman leadership school. (U.S. Air National Guard screen capture/Chief Master Sgt. Steven Durrance)
Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass joined a teleconference with more than 300 Airmen enrolled virtually in NCO academy and Airman leadership school with instructors at the Lankford Enlisted Professional Military Education Center in East Tennessee.
The U.S. Air Force Airman Battle Uniform. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
U.S. Air Force Airmen will end the month of March this year, leaving behind a threadbare and faded slate-blue battle uniform with equally ragged conversations on its wear during the last decade: the ABU, or Airman Battle Uniform.
Only when leisure suit wearers were cool has an outfit been so disliked and oppositely loved.
U.S. Air Force Col. Kenneth Lozano, commander of the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center, welcomes enlisted professional military education students to NCO Academy, January 8, 2020, on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in East Tennessee. TEC’s EPME center graduates thousands of students from leadership studies annually as the U.S. Air Force’s total force EPME center. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
By U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith I.G. Brown Training and Education Center
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — Taking a look back at a jarring 2020, the Air National Guard’s I.G. Brown Training and Education Center staff said that they faced extraordinary challenges with bold ideas, innovation, and teamwork amid isolation and unfamiliarity.
Like past national crises, the COVID-19 pandemic made a demarcation line, but with an impact like no other. The year was marked by before health protection conditions and after.
TEC is now into its 10th month of the deadly virus that suspended most in-resident classes in March and pushed staff and faculty to rethink every facet of meeting, teaching, and serving in uniform.
One of the biggest things you hear around the U.S. Air Force these days is accelerating change, so you read stuff like leveraging inclusion, innovation, and diversity.
We’re talking about open-minded approaches that welcome the input of all service members.
But how do you get that insight? We may repeatedly be looking at issues and asking ourselves, “How can that person, just because they look different than me, possibly influence this mission?” Maybe it’s unanswered because we don’t take the time to appreciate personal experiences.
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Derek Kern instructs Airman Leadership School with students virtually, October 14, 2020, while inside an empty classroom at the Air National Guard’s Lankford Enlisted Professional Military Education on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in East Tennessee. Sergeant Kern is assigned to the Center from the regular Air Force as a PME instructor. Lankford Center is conducting virtual in-residence remote EPME for the total Air Force during COVID-19 for thousands of Airmen worldwide. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. — The U.S. Air Force’s enlisted professional military education center in East Tennessee looked back at the Fiscal Year 2020 this week to reflect on the adversity, innovations, and accomplishments, perhaps like no other during its 52 years.
The Chief Master Sergeant Paul H. Lankford Enlisted Professional Military Education Center is the Air National Guard’s total force PME center that graduated thousands of students since last October, despite pandemic restrictions.
They reported 1,411 NCOA graduates and 397 Airman Leadership School graduates during the fiscal year. That involved 11 classes, including six newly designed virtual in-resident-remote EPME classes and five traditional EPME classes.
U.S. Air Force Airmen in consideration for awards stand at their graduation ceremony for Noncommissioned Officer Academy, Class 20-1, November 20, 2019, at the Chief Master Sergeant Paul H. Lankford Enlisted Professional Military Education Center 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. – The Air National Guard’s primary campus for training and education in East Tennessee recently achieved the highest grade awarded after a U.S. Air Force review of its enlisted education for total force Airmen.
The Chief Master Sergeant Paul H. Lankford Enlisted Professional Military Education Center, a division within the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center, earned HIGHLY EFFECTIVE by the U.S. Air Force’s Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education in a Program Management Review.
“COVID-19 can’t stop the passion and energy of Team TEC!” said U.S. Air Force Col. Kenneth Lozano, the commander, in an email to faculty and staff.
(U.S. Air National Guard photo illustration/Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
There are times when personal opinion is valuable, and there are moments when it’s inappropriate. This balance with subjectivity stresses the importance of transparency in our media.
If we live in a world where everyone reports something, professionals have a particular onus to source it. The cold, hard fact is that cold, hard facts and personal beliefs are equally viable when adequately identified.