Twenty airmen assigned to two recently activated Air Mobility Command advisory squadrons graduated from Air Education and Training Command’s inaugural air advisor basic course tailored for missions in Africa and South America. The course is taught at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. These airmen—members of the 818th Mobility Support Advisory Squadron at McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and the 571st MSAS at Travis AFB, Calif.—learned how to train, advise, and assist partner nations’ military personnel in the development of air mobility systems. With the course behind them, the airmen are scheduled to begin missions later this year. During the month-long course, the airmen learned skills like mentoring techniques and acquired foreign language skills and region-specific cultural knowledge. Course instruction also focused on building diplomatic skills needed to work in cultures where one-on-one relationships are highly valued. The airmen graduated last month. (McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst report by TSgt. Parker Gyokeres)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.