Officer Training School Looks Inward:

Civilians and airmen at the Air Force Officer Accession and Training Schools are taking part in a process-improvement exercise, dubbed Operation Iron Sharpener. Officials say that the entire workforce has formed teams to identify ways to improve the school’s operations and eliminate “wasteful tactics, techniques, and procedures.” Among current initiatives of Iron Sharpener, which officials expect to be a continuing process, are ways to make AFOATS an “assignment of choice” for active duty personnel, including creating ways for them to stay current in their primary career fields. AFOATS, headquartered at Maxwell AFB, Ala., comprises Officer Training School and Reserve Officer Training Corps and commissions about 80 percent of the service’s officers.