Expeditionary training instructors at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., ensure airmen are prepared for the war zone.For those in some Air Force specialties, seeing combat was not even a remote possibility when they signed up. Chaplains, civil engineers, public affairs officers, accountants, and managers, for example, don't sound like front-line combat jobs.Today, though, with almost everyone in the Air Force on the hook to spend at least some time in a forward deployed area, the service is determined airmen will not go without some fundamental skills in fighting and surviving in a combat zone.Those skills are taught at Combat Airman Skills Training at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. There, two days into a CAST course, a group of airmen previously at home in a deskand-PC environment find themselves face down in the mud, gripping a rifle. These first two days are an unnatural, confusing, and surreal experience for these airmen-which is exactly why they're here.
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