Air 
Force Reserve Command’s 482nd Fighter Wing introduced a development and training flight to prepare new accessions at Homestead ARB, Fla., for basic training. “Our job is to make sure these airmen are fully prepared to continue or begin their training so they can go on to be productive, fit-to-fight airmen,” said SrA. Cynthia Pichardo, DTF assistant program manager, in a Homestead release. The Air Force began testing the DTF concept at a group of trial bases last year, and expanded the program earlier this year at AFRC units across the country. Formal, unified standards for the program have not been established, but DTF curriculum generally includes pre-training in customs and courtesy, dress and appearance, physical fitness, and Air Force structure and history, states the release. Homestead’s first class of 24 prospective airmen started DTF at the wing’s training assembly on Aug. 11. (Homestead report by SrA. Jaimi Upthegrove)
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.