The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

When members of the Chinook Chapter of the FFA were travelling back to Chinook from Indianapolis after the National FFA Convention in early November, their advisor Robin Allen was flying to Montgomery, Alabama. Allen was called to Squadron Officers School (SOS) at Maxwell Air Force Base, a mandatory military training.

According to Allen, who is in year five as an Air Force Captain currently serving as a Public Affairs Officer in the Montana Air National Guard, SOS is required Professional Military Education (PME) for her to continue in her military career. Most captains attend at the four to six-year range of being an Air Force Officer.

An in-residence program, SOS is a six and a half week educational experience for United States Air Force captains. At Maxwell Air Force Base, Colonel Ricky L. Mills is the SOS Commandant. He describes the function of the program:

"The purpose of SOS is to help develop solution-minded, bold and courageous airmen ready to overcome today's and tomorrow's challenges. In order to accomplish this task, the course is structured around four primary areas: 1) leadership, 2) building highly-effective teams, 3) logical and ethical reasoning in decision making, and 4) multi-domain joint warfare. Students engage in classroom and hands-on application events that will challenge their individual leadership awareness, foster innovative thinking, provide effective methods for conflict resolution, and collaboratively solve problems."

The first half of the training focused on leadership and teamwork and the second half provided training on topics like joint warfare, team concepts, and sharing and integrating resources to win or deter conflicts.

"It was really interesting," Allen said. "I did about two thirds of the distance learning of the SOS course before I arrived in Montgomery because I didn't know if I would get a school date. With all my other obligations, it's really challenging to find eight weeks in the year to commit."

This PME training was attended by 632 SOS students, and approximately 46 of them are guard and reserve, like Allen. The remainder are active duty.

Allen was in a flight with 13 other classmates, all of whom are active duty except for her and one other reservist. "Many of my classmates were pilots-helicopter, fighter, and transport-but we also had cyber, intel, missileer, ER nurse, acquisitions officer, international officer, personnel, and Chaplin; so, it was a diverse group," she reported.

The group's lessons included topics that ranged from ethics to multi-domain operations. In one activity that required practice in using insight, students had to choose a problem from the base and research a solution. Similar problem-solving skills were practiced in Joint Warfare and Nuclear Deterrence simulations, where teams had 45 minutes to develop a plan based on information provided and then 15-25 minutes to demonstrate a solution.

One of Allen's favored simulations was Airpower Doctrine Wargaming, or ADWAR. ADWAR is like a video game using multi-domain operations to meet victory conditions. "Each section has a part to complete," Allen said. "My teammate, Josh, and I were on a team named Rooster. With our A-10, F-16, F-22, and F-35 aircraft, our job was to take off and attack specific ground targets like mechanized units, special air mission aircraft (SAMs), communication centers, and base runways.

"Of course, this is all against the enemy. My other classmates also played, so we engaged in various combat maneuvers: air to air (think dog fighting), cyber (in cyber-attacks we could see the enemy's communication network), and bombers (here we attacked ground targets). We also practiced transport, which involves moving people and cargo, as well as refueling aircraft in the sky. Another team that had Navy assets provided rescue of downed crews," Allen explained.

For anyone interested, YouTube videos convey a visual idea of ADWAR.

In a functional leadership exercise (FLEX), Allen described how players launch rubber playground balls in a fashion similar to that used when playing dodge ball. The goal in FLEX is to win air superiority and to take out the other team's bases and communication systems. Using a military framework called the Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC), teams also confront emerging Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) threats so that they can gain entry and maintain access anywhere and in any domain: land, air, space, sea, and cyber.

Every day was filled with assignments, simulations, briefs, projects, planning, and Commandant's challenges. These were complemented by activities designed to develop vision and goal setting, decision making and leadership, international relations and the art of negotiation, or stratification within the military.

Allen described one of those activities, a communications exercise, or COMEX, as a "luck of the draw" role playing event that tested how the individual reacted to either gaining or losing all the power.

After every lesson and activity, the group held debrief sessions so as to improve and learn. "What I enjoyed most about this training is that we were able to put into practice everything that we were learning about. I didn't have to regurgitate information on a multiple-choice test," Allen reported.

In addition to the many required topics, students were allowed three electives. Allen chose Google Scholar, Air Force Inspection System, and Painting with Bob Ross, which she described as a stress reliever. Allen painted an acrylic on canvas. It features a Northern Lights scene with mountains, water, a snowman, and falling snow.

When asked about her most memorable Montgomery moment, Allen responded that her classmates in general made the experience something to remember. "We decided during Week One that we were going to do weekly 'family dinners.' Each week we'd pick a new restaurant with a different type of food, and our whole class would go out to dinner. We really bonded as a group and had a lot of fun together in and out of class," she reported.

In fact, her biggest take-away from the SOS experience is that people matter. "Our squadron commander really talked about the importance of taking care of yourself and your airmen in order to have a successful career. The group of officers that I had as classmates were amazing! We had a lot of strong personalities, but we each contributed to the conversation and we would listen when the quieter classmates added to the conversation. We all put our best foot forward each day to complete tasks and enjoyed our time together," Allen said.

Allen's next required training will be Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) in another two-four years. However, she will be able to complete that one from a distance.

Participating in a problem-solving activity at SOS, Robin Allen and her classmates constructed a tower using just masking tape, string, and spaghetti. The objective was to build the tallest free-standing tower with the given items.

When asked how this training might apply to her work with students at Chinook High School, Allen replied: "This school had a focus on problem-solving and working as a team, as well as on team building and leading an organization. All these skills will help me be an effective educator. I think more to the FFA side and taking these skills that I've learned and integrating them into my classroom and using them to build the FFA chapter. I can modify some of the activities from here to use with my students to teach leadership, problem-solving, and teamwork so as to develop strong youth leadership at the high school."

The SOS goal is to graduate students who "will return to their units with an enhanced understanding of the institutional competencies, leadership actions, and key elements of reasoning required to fly, fight, and win in the 21st century." Allen hopes to take these competencies into her work with Chinook youth and beyond.