Wing command chief update Published Oct. 31, 2014 By Chief Master Sgt. Jamie Lawrence 157th Air Refueling Wing Command Chief PEASE AIR NATIONAL GUARD, N.H. -- Let me start by saying thank you! Thank you for your continued dedication and service to your family, state and nation. Thank you for answering the call to serve as a member of the New Hampshire Air National Guard. My sincere thanks to those who train others or coordinate the training of others! We have all experienced an explosion of new and highly motivated Airmen, both officers and enlisted. Without the dedication of our trainers we could not accomplish our critical mission sets. For our trainees, I thank you for taking your training seriously and for approaching each training opportunity with a positive and professional attitude. My heartfelt thanks to all of our retiring members for their faithful and dedicated service. We wish you the very best of success and happiness in the next chapter to come. Please remember that you will always be a welcome and integral part of our Guard Family. Professional Military Education As Airmen, we have a dual responsibility to the greater team and to ourselves. That responsibility involves the combination of learning our craft, our Air Force Specialty, and also learning how to be effective followers and leaders. To accomplish this, we enroll in the appropriate level of Professional Military Education for our respective grade. There are a number of options when it comes to accomplishing PME: In-residence, Satellite or Distance Learning (Correspondence). Whatever method you choose, please know that there's a support network out there to help you get through it. That support starts with your supervisor, commander and unit training manager. We will always have a need for capable and competent leadership at every level. To that end, PME plays a vital role in preparing our present and future leaders. I urge you to proactively pursue PME enrollment for the greater team and as a means of growing personally and professionally. You can do it, and please remember that you are not alone. Thank you. Satellite-NCO Academy In August, we stood up our first Satellite-NCO Academy in more than a decade. Our thirteen highly motivated students and three facilitators are entering their third month of training. Classes are held Tuesday and Thursday evenings with a final two week in-residence course in December at the ANG Training and Education Center. We will be looking for highly motivated students and facilitators for future sessions. The Satellite-NCOA curriculum will be rewritten next year to accommodate recent program changes. As a result, Satellite-NCOA offerings will be extremely limited to an 80 percent reduction. However, the ANG plans to have an entirely new Satellite-NCOA curriculum rolled out for FY16. There will be some FY15 in-residence NCOA opportunities and as always, enrollment via the NCOA Distance Learning Course. Please see your supervisor and unit training manager for application and enrollment guidance. The Future of Airman Leadership School There are exciting developments on the ALS front! Locally, we're pursuing the stand-up of our very first Satellite-ALS course in FY15. We're looking for highly motivated students and facilitators. Concerning FY15 in-residence ALS seats, we received six ALS seats for FY15 and filled them immediately via a review of student applications. We have five students on the FY15 ALS waiting list. We remain optimistic that we will find in-residence seats for our remaining five students. ANG leadership has pledged to increase ALS in-residence opportunities for FY15 through FY18. The return of Regional (ANG) ALS Academies. The ANG is actively pursuing the stand-up of Regional ALS Academies across the country. This is extremely good news given the very limited in-residence opportunities for our Airmen. Additionally, Airman may complete ALS via correspondence. Please see your supervisor and unit training manager for application and enrollment guidance. Senior NCO Academy We had a very successful FY14 and FY15 Senior NCO Academy in-residence application process. One hundred percent of those who applied were accepted into the course. The Air Force and ANG continue to find ways to increase in-residence opportunities. Changes to the SNCOA in-residence process now require an applicant to complete the distance learning portion prior to attending in-residence. This combination of virtual course work and in-residence training is called "blended learning." Students who complete the distance learning requirement receive 100 percent SNCOA course credit. Those wishing for that in-resident, person to person perspective will take part in what's called the Advanced Learning Experience, or (ALE). Please see your supervisor or unit training manager for application and enrollment guidance. December Commander's Call and Winter Carnival Volunteers It's hard to believe but it's almost time for our annual December Commander's Call and Winter Carnival. My sincerest thanks to all of you who have volunteered to help out in the past and for those who will volunteer this year. There's a tremendous amount of work that goes into making this such a memorable day for our members and their Families. Remember, it's not too late to jump in and volunteer. Our December Commander's Call lead is CMSgt Keith Downs and Bonnie Rice is our Winter Carnival lead. Community College of the Air Force Degree Congratulations to those Airmen who have completed their CCAF degree(s) and to those who are actively working toward CCAF degree completion. I've never met a person yet who didn't experience increased self- confidence and competence through college studies. Please take the plunge and enroll today, you will be glad you did. We're blessed to have a number of area colleges, the NHNG Tuition Waiver, G.I. Bill and Active Duty Tuition Assistance to help pay for or defray the cost of a college education. Enlisted Councils Your Enlisted Councils are led by highly motivated and dedicated professionals who want to make a real difference. They're in need of your talents and time. Please consider getting involved with the Chief's Group, Top 3, Top 4, The Enlisted Council and the Rising-5.