Supporting U.S. Air Force Families in Times of Crisis and War
A CRI Success Story
By Dan Raymond, Senior Performance Consultant, CEP

One of the less well known, unheralded agencies that supports the military and families in times of crisis and war is the Air Force Family Support Center (FSC). There are 84 FSCs spread out at Air Force bases around the world. Staffed for the most part by professional civilians, the charge of FSCs is to ensure that members and their families in the Air Force are cared for and strengthened to enhance mission readiness—everything from financial planning assistance, helping with relocation, assisting in the transition to new bases or jobs or, in today’s turbulent world, preparing and assisting families when the sponsors are deployed to combat theaters. FSCs help provide the skills these members and their families need to function effectively and independently in the military environment.

While all branches of the Armed Forces have similar organizations, the U.S. Air Force, has, over the past decade, paid particular attention to the question, “How can we better train the people who work in FSCs to accomplish their mission and achieve the results expected by the Air Force?”

The reason for this focus on training is simple. The Air Force has long acknowledged a direct link between family preparedness and wellness and combat readiness. The Air Force understands that if military families are unhappy, especially the spouses, military personnel will be stressed and unhappy. This can have negative repercussions. It can mean that Air Force personnel may not reenlist when their tour of duty ends; it may require personnel to return home early from a deployment; or it can result in personnel simply not performing as well as they could and should. Considering that the training investment in just one Air Force pilot is about $1.7 million dollars, FSCs aren’t just a value-added service, they are an essential component of military preparedness and maintaining the effectiveness of the force.

To improve its FSC training, the Air Force has employed the Criterion-Referenced Instruction (CRI) methodology to revamp existing training courses and to create new courses. The most outstanding example of this application and the flagship course in FSC training is the Readiness NCO Qualification Course. In 1998, the Air Force created a non-commissioned officer (NCO)-level position focused solely on assisting and readying families and units to respond rapidly and appropriately to any change event—including relocation, transition, natural disasters, manmade disasters, evacuations, and deployments to exercises or war zones. Before then, civilian Readiness Coordinators or other people working in the FSC had done the job. Readiness NCOs are handpicked and the job is a three-year special duty assignment. The NCOs return to their regular Air Force job specialties at the end of the three years.

The Air Force partnered with CEP to analyze, design, and develop a CRI-based training course that would provide Readiness NCOs and the civilian Coordinators with the critical technical and interpersonal skills they needed to perform their duties effectively. The analysis began with a one-page job description and a working group of exemplary performers—handpicked FSC Directors and major command staff members from Air Force bases around the world.

The working group first listed the high-level outcomes for the new job position that would contribute to mission accomplishment at the Air Force, installation, and FSC levels. Desired outcomes included personnel preparedness, family adaptation, health and well being, sense of community, as well as family support during such critical times as:

• Separation and deployments (pre-deployment, deployment, return and reunion)
• Crisis response to casualty situations
• Evacuations

• Identify and prepare deploying personnel and their families for the separation
• Identify family needs during separations and deployments
• Prepare readiness displays
• Establish and facilitate family support groups and networks
• Facilitate communications during deployments (email/VTC/morale calls)
• Identify and refer families at risk or having problems
• Assess the effectiveness of family readiness programs
• Establish formal relationships with support agencies on and off-base

The new training course is five days long and all the lessons are criterion-referenced. It is the most interactive course in the FSC training curriculum. To provide ample opportunity to practice newly learned skills in job-relevant situations, the students are immersed in a scenario-based simulation the moment they step in the classroom. The simulation involves a fictitious Eagle Point Air Force Base on the coast of California. Students assume the role of a newly assigned Readiness NCO to the base FSC who is undergoing training. The scenario takes place in a time of heightened tension between the free world and North Korea. Throughout the course, classes are interrupted with breaking news reports from the local television station--Eagle News Network (ENN) and operational messages from the local air base commander.

The students are immersed in role-plays, individual and small group work, and large group discussions. Many of the exercises are team-based, since that is the way they will be operating in their job setting. Each student must lead meetings, serve as a recorder for meetings, and brief out the results of a course activity. In a typical block of instruction like “Provide Support to Families During Evacuations,” students are given instruction and job aids and then are put in a situation where Air Force families are being evacuated from the Korean peninsula to Eagle Point AFB. They must then develop plans for the evacuation and set up a Family Assistance Control Center (FACC) to take care of the families once they arrive at Eagle Point Air Force Base. They are then given situations to respond to that might occur while the families are transitioning through the FACC. A typical situation might read as follows: “Susie is a first-time parent in the FACC following repatriation from Korea. She has found herself losing her temper with the baby for crying too much and has started shaking him. What should you (the Readiness NCO) do in this situation?” Each block of instruction in the course includes a number of realistic exercise scenarios and numerous situations like the one mentioned here.

Since the program’s inception, over 300 Readiness NCOs and Coordinators have received training. Course evaluation data shows clearly that the course is job relevant and the graduates leave with exceptional skills in all facets of the Readiness NCO job. They return to their FSCs and can immediately demonstrate their effectiveness as a valuable member of the team dedicated to serving Air Force members and their families. The student evaluation results are consistently outstanding. The course maintains the highest level of effectiveness regarding mission accomplishment, instructional quality, course value, and course effectiveness. The end-of-course evaluation scores for the last two classes in these four areas ranged between 95% and 100%, with all but one of the scores at 100%. The evaluations are rife with laudatory comments about the course and the instructors. Typical student comments include things like:

• “I have been a Readiness NCO for 5 months. Until now I felt like I was in a dark room. I knew where the furniture was, but now the lights have been turned on and I like the color of the furniture.”
• “The practical exercises were paramount to the success of this course. We can only imagine what to do until we are put in actual situations.”
• “All instructors were energized and positive--outstanding. All provided realistic situations and demonstrated expertise and competence.”
• “The course was absolutely fabulous. Awesome. Very in-depth. I feel prepared to go back and implement and look at things in a different light.”
• “To be frank, the entire course was outstanding. I cannot wait to get back home to start reviewing my programs.”
• “The overall interactive nature of the course was wonderful and effective. I had fun learning by hands-on.”
• “The group work, team approach, and real-world application of information and skills were wonderful.”
• “Great exercises and sharing of ideas.”
• “I liked working as a team because it opened my eyes to different ideas and approaches.”

Follow-up evaluations and discussions with the FSC Directors attest to the success of the course. The graduates are doing an outstanding job in the field. During the recent Iraqi Freedom campaign, the Readiness NCOs played a critical role in the success of the war. Knowing that their families were well taken care of during the evacuations, deployments, and combat operations, the Air Force members could concentrate on the business of war fighting. The well-trained Readiness NCO is a significant combat and force multiplier when determining the effectiveness of the U.S. Air Force in all future missions.

Thank you Bob Mager, your CRI methodology has made a wonderful contribution to the success of the Air Force and the preparedness and wellness of Air Force families.

Resources that can help:

Mager, Robert, F. 1997. Making Instruction Work: A step-by-step guide to designing and developing instruction that works. 2d ed. Atlanta: The Center for Effective Performance, Inc.

Our award-winning consulting experts can design and develop CRI-based training to teach mission-critical skills to your workforce. For a free consultation, please contact Kim Homa at khoma@cepworldwide.com or 770-458-4080.

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