ALS: Molding Airmen into NCOs

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Joanna M. Kresge
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Airman Leadership School is the first step on the road of Air Force Professional Military Education in every Airman's career. For Airmen of Barksdale, home of Air Force Global Strike Command, it is no different.

For many, this first step can be a daunting one. Master Sgt. Neil Heerdink, Barksdale ALS commandant, explains some preparatory steps to take to make the ALS learning environment a little less stressful.

"In order to prepare for ALS and to be as successful as possible, Airmen need to get all their personal and professional obligations under control," he said. "Professionally, they need to get all their computer- based training and ancillary training taskers closed out at their unit prior to coming here. On the personal side, they need to get their finances planned out, they need to make provisions to get children to daycare, find back-ups and update their family care plans because when they come to ALS for those 24 academic duty days, it truly is like they are almost deployed."

In order to attend ALS, Airmen need to have at least 48 months time in service, however there are other reasons why an Airman may be selected for ALS based on a nine-tier priority system. Some of the tiers include Airmen who obtain promotion waivers due to hardship, or deployment and Airmen who have line numbers for staff sergeant.

"Most of the waivers we get are because people are notified of a promotion while they are deployed, 365 deployments are the most common," said Sergeant Heerdink. "They are notified while they are gone that they are being promoted and don't return home until after their number has come up. In those instances, we would do everything we could to push it through."

Once enrolled in ALS, Airmen are faced with an array of new material which can quickly become very demanding on their time.

"A lot of time is spent either at the school house or at home studying in order to be successful at ALS," said Sergeant Heerdink. "The curriculum is designed to ask a lot of the Airmen - it puts them in a state of stress that they may not be used to and that is all for good reason. I tell every class 'for these 24 academic duty days we are going to stretch you to your max, because later on down the road when you are faced with some type of stressful supervisory situation you are going to be able to react to that instantly because you have already been placed in that kind of stressful situation at ALS.'"

Not long after beginning ALS, students quickly realize that teamwork is key in their progression through the course.

"They will develop friends in PME that will last them a lifetime," said Sergeant Heerdink. "Once we start to get into the course they realize that, while they don't all wear the same occupational badge, they all wear the same uniform, and that camaraderie and espirit de corps begins to develop and magnify."

Many recent graduates say the networking and camaraderie among classmates was the best part of their first PME experience.

"I definitely think the best part of ALS was the networking," said Senior Airman Catherine Mulholland, 2nd Munitions Squadron conventional munitions crew chief and distinguished ALS graduate. "Being munitions, we can feel a little segregated and sometimes it feels like we are getting the short end of the stick. At ALS I got to meet new people from the communications squadron, the clinic and security forces and see that they deal with a lot of the same stuff we do."

Sergeant Heerdink stresses that Airmen should come to ALS with an open mind, a willingness to learn and a desire to perform with excellence in all they do.

"ALS is not a place that you send Airmen to get fixed," he said. "I don't like the term re-bluing, we are not re-bluing people here, we are all Airmen and we are blue all the time. Now, some people have a bit of an epiphany when they get here and they realize that things aren't necessarily working the way they should back at their unit. I have no control over that, but I can show you the correct way to do things and allow you to go back to your unit and make a change."

"I think the one thing I'll take with me the most is a refreshed adherence to the core values. You kind of lose sight of why we as Airmen are here, it's nice to get back to the basics of what the Air Force is all about so you can effectively enforce the rules," Airman Mulholland said.

In the end, Sergeant Heerdink says the secret to success at ALS is one simple step.

"PME is as wonderful or as miserable as these airmen choose to make it," he said. "They come here with a positive attitude; I can assure them they'll leave here better than when they got here. PME success is as simple as that."