LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- In today’s highly technological era of airpower requiring adaptable, capable, and lethal airmen, meeting those demands can prove to be challenging.
To help Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas’ specialized undergraduate pilot training students rise to the challenge early in their careers, airmen like Capt. Nicholas Atkins—one of more than 200 instructor pilots, teach students every day how to fly in their respective aircrafts and help them graduate on time to become the best military pilots in the Air Force.
“As an instructor, I teach our students not only how to become a military aviator, but I teach them what it means to be an Airman as well,” Atkins said. “We set the precedent for these students, because we are their first impression of the Air Force.”
With responsibility for more than 400 U.S. and international students and approximately 200 transitory students annually, more than any other pilot training base, the time spent building a solid foundation now, according to Atkins, pays dividends for a young pilot’s career either in their future work center, during a presentation or promotion board, or in a hostile environment.
“Air Education and Training Command sets the fundamentals into every new Airman,” he said. “Those are the building blocks for the rest of their career.”
Laughlin’s SUPT program is a 52-week training course, with more than 500 hours in academics and 60 hours in simulation, before partaking in 200 hours of flight in the T-6A Texan II and either the T-38C Talon II or the T-1A Jayhawk. The training provided by these instructors, like Atkins, forms the basic flight skills crucial to a student's flying career.