IFF takes to the skies

  • Published
  • By Capt. Tony Wickman
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
Vance Air Force Base, Okla. --  The first Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals sortie took flight Wednesday, one of many scheduled for the eight-week course, as part of the inaugural Vance IFF class.

The class of six students, all recent Vance graduates of Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training, started class Aug. 13 in the course designed to bridge the gap between pilot training and follow-on fighter training.

According to Lt. Col. Thomas Tyson, 3rd Fighter Training Squadron commander, it is the culmination point of a lot of hard work by many people behind the scenes to get the unit prepared to receive students and take to the air.

"It is going great, we're ready," Lieutenant Colonel Tyson said. "I have to say the work done by Lt. Col. (Fredric) Fitzsimmons and Lt. Col. (Brian) Tonnell was instrumental in standing up the detachment. They laid all the ground work. Since then, Maj. (Allen) Roberts, Maj. (Brian) Gienapp and Maj. (Dan) Fischer worked on getting the building, syllabus and instructor pilots ready to receive and teach students."

According to Lieutenant Colonel Tyson, the instructions he received from Col. Doug Troyer, 71st Operations Group commander, to stand up the unit and execute the IFF mission was simple and to the point.

"He said, 'turn them into warriors,'" Lieutenant Colonel Tyson said. "Colonel Troyer gave me his philosophy and told me to start the process of making them warriors. In 18 months, these pilots are going to be the ones in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The IFF course is different than JSUPT. They are full-up pilots and we get them and teach them to talk and think like fighter pilots -- the skills, concepts, philosophy and attitude," the lieutenant colonel said. "That is what we teach them in eight weeks. We do it in an AT-38 rather than in F-15s or F-16s. We are the bridge between JSUPT and no kidding shooting at people."

One of the people tasked with building the bridge is Capt. Nathan "Blitz" Thompson, IFF flight commander and F-15C pilot.

"The mandate Lieutenant Colonel Tyson gave me was to make sure we have everything ready for the students," the captain said, who took to the air with a student in the first sortie of the class. "He wanted me to think about what the students needed and to get it done--from the paperwork to having the IPs ready."

For Captain Thompson, the goal of IFF is two fold.

"The first part is to get them out of the student-pilot mode. They are in a mother-may-I mentality, and we want them to get out of that. The 8th and 33rd do a great job getting them to fly, and the 25th does their job of teaching them to fly jets. We take it to the next step. The second part is we teach them the foundations of combat flying. We take it from the end of JSUPT and bridge to the Formal/Replacement Training Units."

The end goal is to get the students ready to go to their weapon system.

"We need to make sure they are ready to go to follow-on training. Our job is not to wash students out, but we have to make sure they meet the grade," the captain said. "We put new stressors on students to get them ready. We teach them to fly forward while looking backward. We put the students in new situations and see if they can do it. Most of the students will be going to single-seat fighters. They have to rely on themselves to fly the aircraft."

According to Captain Thompson, the mission of the 3rd FTS as he sees it is to take the students to the edge of an aircraft's abilities and fly like a combat pilot.

"JSUPT teaches them to fly in the heart of the envelope. In IFF we push the envelope and teach them to fly the AT-38 like a fighter," Captain Thompson said. "At the end of eight weeks, I want everyone to be here and ready to graduate and go to RTUs. The legacy I want is that if a student makes it though IFF, then we have given that person the skills to make it through their next training."

For Lieutenant Colonel Tyson, getting a pilot to an FTU is job one.

"We talk and visit with the FTUs because they are our customers," the lieutenant colonel said. "The thing to remember is the friends we have in the (Combat Air Forces) will call back and tell us honestly about the product we send out. There is pressure on these guys because we want to make sure we are sending the best young wingmen to our brethren."