Joint basing instruction provides Army, Air Force crash course

  • Published
  • By Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeremy Larlee
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  The Army and Air Force 301 courses provide basic information about the other services to civilian employees and service members at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Dean Hone, deputy commander for installation support, 673d Mission Support Group, said the genesis for the course came from a senior leadership meeting. The leaders recognized long time employees of one service may not know a lot about the other service.

"There needed to be a course of orientation for people joining this joint base to learn about the other service," Hone said. "It's all about understanding each other's culture and knowing that we are now a joint war fighting team."

Air Force Master Sgt. Bret Copple, director of education at the JBER Professional Military Education Center, is instructing both courses. Throughout the course, he sprinkles in personal stories from his past joint deployments. He said he believes his experience working in a joint environment helps him to better instruct the courses.

"It is much easier to teach this when you have that experience," he said. "It has been rewarding to see people's expressions when certain points hit home."

He said joint experience during deployments has been a benefit to JBER.

A lot of people on this base have that experience as well," he said. "It is a resource that will help make joint basing successful."

Copple said he hopes people will use the course as a jumping off point in their joint service knowledge.

"People will not understand everything about the other service from attending these courses," he said. "It is a good starting point and I hope people will talk to their other service counterparts and learn more."

Hone said he thinks the information is critical for people in customer service positions.

"It is very important that we support our customers and understand their needs and the needs of their families," he said. "We need to make sure our programs take care of all of our customers."

Hone said people have been enjoying the training.

"All the feedback we have received from the first classes has been very positive."

Gena Walker, an Air Force employee at the Denali Child Care Center, was one of the people who attended the Army 301 course and said she learned a lot from it
"This course taught me a lot about the Army, especially about how their rank structure works," she said. "It is good to know the Army perspective, Lots of things are changing here and it is important to know where they are coming from."

Walker said she highly recommends the course for anybody who doesn't know much about the other service.

Training is at the PME Center located off 11th Street.

"Come on out and get it done," she said. "You will definitely learn something during this course."

For Air Force 301 training (former Army civilians), training will be 8:30-11 a.m. daily Tuesday and Wednesday.

For Army 301 training (career Air Force), training will be 1:30-3:30 p.m. daily Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are 160 seats available for each session. Reserve a seat at william.ferguson.1@elmendorf.af.mil, or call 552-8898.