Coast Guard Aviation Education

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1. When the Airman Program was eliminated, the Coast Guard lost the ability to provide hands-on training to personnel entering aviation ratings. Aviation Technical Training Center (ATTC) does not have the resources required to properly prepare members for work in the field. Consequently, aviation Class A school graduates are reporting to their next units without the basic skills needed to be an asset to an aviation engineering department. The Coast Guard needs an enlisted aviation indoctrination program that will give new aviation petty officers essential basic skills.

2. Coast Guard aviation is a demanding field that requires well trained and experienced members in order to carry out its many missions. A valuable part of the training …show more content…

The objective of the Airman Program, according to reference (b), was to prepare service members bound for aviation Class A schools in the basic practices of aircraft maintenance. The program was largely effective but there was little direction on how units implemented the program. Some units assigned airmen to the various shops to shadow rated petty officers as they conducted daily operations. Other units created more formal airman training programs with classroom instruction and Airman Coordinators who were responsible for monitoring airman progress. While there were benefits to both methods of instruction, the system produced members with widely varying levels of knowledge and experience. In response to this problem, AMT and AET Class A schools were extended by 6 weeks and the Airman Program curriculum was incorporated into the Class A school curricula, creating a single source of instruction. Unfortunately, ATTC has no working aircraft on which new aviation personnel can learn the basics of handling, servicing, and maintenance. Reference (c), the very curriculum that was supposed to be incorporated into Class A School curriculum, states that airmen are training to become third class petty officers and therefore they should be given every opportunity to perform the same tasks that a third class petty officer would and that they should also be given every opportunity to become comfortable working on and around aircraft. Reference (c) also gives the example that …show more content…

The Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center (ALC) is the heart of Coast Guard aviation and is connected to nearly everything that takes place at an air station. Moreover, ALC is the authority on aircraft maintenance, aircraft publications, the supply system, and is home to the Asset Logistics Management Information System (ALMIS). Experience in each of these areas is essential to perform the daily business of a Coast Guard air station. Therefore, ALC should be the location where new petty officers build a foundation of aviation knowledge and skills on which to launch their careers. Under the proposed program, Class A school graduates would spend one month working on the end of the line on either fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft, based on the member’s assignment. Tasks which cannot be completed at ATTC, including, but not limited to, the General Aviation section of reference (c), will be performed during the program under the guidance of experienced technicians. Because ALC is not an operational unit, the schedule is more predictable than that of a typical air station and is more conducive to training. The creation of an indoctrination program at ALC provides benefits both to ALC, in the form of increased manpower, and to the new petty officers, in the form of hands-on training in a non-operational

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