The 3rd Combat Communications Group’s Combat Readiness School at Tinker AFB, Okla., last week graduated its final class of battlefield communications specialists before ceasing operations. “It’s been a good feeling to teach airmen skills that could potentially save their lives,” said school Commandant MSgt. Matt Smith in Tinker’s Aug. 3 release. Air Force Space Command plans to inactivate the 3rd CCG to match reductions in the combat air forces. Under the plan, the 3rd CCG’s activities would shift to the 5th CCG at Robins AFB, Ga., which has its own combat readiness school. Tinker’s school began its two-week pre-deployment course in the early 1990s to teach airmen to establish and defend a communications emplacement in the field, states the release. The course, taught six times a year, culminated in a 36-hour field exercise. The final class graduated on July 27. (Tinker report by Micah Garbarino)
A pair of chief information officers for Pentagon organizations argued for a more practical approach to artificial intelligence focused on things like streamlining organizational tasks across the Defense Department.