FTAC leads the way

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Dana J. Butler
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  

Reporting to your first duty station can be a scary, confusing experience for first-term Airmen, especially when reporting to a foreign country, but the RAF Lakenheath First Term Airmen Center course is designed to make the transition a smoother and easier process.

Newly arrived Lakenheath Airmen participate in the five-day-long course designed to transition them from a training environment to the operational Air Force.

"The transition can be rough, but I try and make it a little more relaxed than the training environment and try to make myself more approachable to the Airmen so that if they have any issues or concerns they can talk to me," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Carr, 48th Maintenance Group knowledge operations manager and FTAC cadre.

The FTAC instructors ensure Airmen get acquainted with their first base by making sure they get to all their appointments on time and attend all mandatory briefings.

Base organizations, such as the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment and the Airmen and Family Readiness Center, visit FTAC to let new Airmen know what services their agency offers.

"The few lessons we really harp into them and they hear about over and over again are sexual assault prevention, no drinking and driving and the importance of physical training," said Staff Sgt. Kristi Shepard, 48th Equipment Maintenance Squadron crew chief and NCO in charge of FTAC. "Those are the three main things that they are going to take away. Plus the social networking of learning who people are, where they work and how to use those facilities to be able to tap into the base systems."

First Term Airmen Center cadre also show Airmen the human side of military life.

"We create an atmosphere for the Airmen, we take them in and let them know the facilities that we have on base, what we offer and what the base rules and regulations are and set them up for success in the future," said Shepard. "We try to get them to relax because the military can be intimidating when you first come in."

Roughly 500 Airmen come through FTAC each year.

"I think FTAC is very effective because it gives them an idea of what to expect as opposed to just sending them to their unit and having them not know what's going on," said Shepard. "We want the Airmen to have fun and we set them up for success."