Air Education and Training Command (AETC) is one of the nine Major Commands (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF), reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force. It was established 1 July 1993, with the realignment of Air Training Command and Air University.
AETC is headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. AETC is the primary training and professional education command in the Air Force.
More than 48,000 active duty and Air Reserve Component members and 14,000 civilian personnel make up AETC. The command has responsibility for approximately 1,600 aircraft.
AETC's mission is to "recruit, train and educate Airmen to deliver air power for America."
Air Force Recruiting Service
AETC's mission begins with the Air Force Recruiting Service (AFRS), an AETC activity also headquartered at Randolph AFB, Texas. AFRS comprises three regional groups and 24 squadrons with more than 1,400 commissioned officer and enlisted recruiters assigned throughout the United States, England, Germany, Japan, Puerto Rico and Guam. Recruiters in more than 1,000 offices worldwide recruit the young men and women needed as both enlisted airmen and commissioned officers to meet the demands of the U.S. Air Force.
AFRS recruitment of commissioned officers is limited to 4-year college/university graduates via Air Force Officer Training School (OTS). Individuals who desire to become commissioned USAF officers and enter the service via the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) and Air Force ROTC (AFROTC) are not recruited by AFRS and are instead accessed via recruitment and application activities of USAFA and AFROTC, respectively.
Basic military training and technical training
Second Air Force (2 AF), with headquarters at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, is responsible for conducting basic military and technical training for Air Force enlisted members and technical training for non-flying missile launch officers and support officers. The first stop for all Regular Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command enlisted personnel is Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland AFB, Texas. More than 36,000 new airmen complete this recently lengthened eight-and-a-half-week program each year.
After completing BMT, airmen begin technical training in their career field specialties, primarily at five installations: Goodfellow AFB, Lackland AFB, and Sheppard AFB in Texas; Keesler AFB, Mississippi; and Vandenberg SFB, California. There are also several cross-service schools such as Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and the U.S. Army CCBRN School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri that select USAF enlisted personnel will also attend. A recently established technical training institute at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, also conducts training in several medical career fields. Each base is responsible for a specific portion of formal technical training airmen require to accomplish the Air Force mission. Instructors conduct technical training in specialties such as aircraft maintenance, electronic principles, air transportation, civil engineering, medical services, computer systems, security forces, air traffic control, personnel, intelligence, fire fighting, weather forecasting and space and missile operations.
Commissioned officers not assigned to flight training as prospective pilots, combat systems officers or air battle managers attend technical training courses for similar career fields at the same locations.
2 AF also conducts specialized training for military working dogs and dog handlers at Lackland AFB, Texas, for the entire Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration. Additionally, the Inter-American Air Forces Academy at Lackland AFB hosts more than 160 courses in aviation specialties, taught in Spanish, to students from 19 Western hemisphere countries.
Flying training
When AETC was established in 1993, Nineteenth Air Force (19 AF) was also established as a companion numbered air force to 2 AF within AETC. While 2 AF focused on ground-based technical training, 19 AF focused on all undergraduate flying training and those formal training units (FTU) under its claimancy from 1993 until 2012, and again from 2014 to present. On 12 July 2012, 19 AF was temporarily inactivated for budgetary reasons in an effort to gain efficiencies. By 2014, these efficiencies had failed to materialize and the then-Commander of AETC, Gen Robin Rand, directed reestablishment of 19 AF effective 1 October 2014 for the oversight of all flight training operations under AETC's claimancy.