Forging Future Aviators: Training for Great Power Competition

  • Published
  • By Lt Col Marc Meier
  • 14th Operations Support Squadron

The 14th Operations Support Squadron has always championed the wing’s effort of ensuring Columbus Air Force Base is a developmental campus that sustains and prepares Airmen for the future fight. The future challenges of Great Power Competition require us to look for new ways to improve not only our daily operations, but also how we train and develop our Airmen of all ranks to execute the pilot training mission.

Our weather flight has continually excelled against the odds to support the wing while stepping up to fill critical leadership roles and create innovative solutions to resolve persistent obstacles for flight processes. Our Airmen are at the forefront displaying uncommon initiative and eagerness to gain valuable skill sets and experience. The team provided timely and reliable weather forecasting to support our largest wing event, the Thunder Over Columbus Air Show, and evacuation planning in response to Hurricanes Francine and Helene.

Airmen at the Airfield Operations Flight and Air Traffic Control facilities identified aircraft traffic bottlenecks and collaborated to reduce excessive flight delays enabling a focused effort to obtaining multiple ATC certifications, effectively boosting the number of certified controllers by 60%. Aircrew Flight Equipment support also directly benefited with a sustained 97% availability rating. The 14 OSS has navigated numerous manpower challenges within the last year yet has consistently found innovative ways to ensure the personal and professional development of its Airmen. Annually, our squadron is directly contributing to over 40,000 sorties 150 altitude chamber certifications and over 200 new Air Force pilots.

By successfully and meticulously managing how upgrades are identified and how training is administered, the OSS has earned numerous wing and higher headquarters awards for the unit, individual teams and members.  

As manning continues to normalize, it can be expected that the successes seen by the OSS will grow to levels not yet seen. This is all thanks to the hard work and dedication of every OSS Airman on Columbus AFB.  I am proud to be the commander of the “Scream’n Eagles” and look forward to continuing to watch the squadron grow, be a pivotal support role in training world class pilots and continue to unite diverse professionals to create combat-ready Airmen!

TALONS OUT!

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