· One of the largest Air Force technical training centers
· Air Force training center for electronics, including cyber
· Between 20,000 and 30,000 students trained annually
In a competitive, global economy where so many places tout their high-tech capabilities, few can say they host a technology school that draws students from across the nation.
But Biloxi can.
Keesler Air Force Base’s 81st Training Wing trains tens of thousands of students every year in basic and advanced courses in electronics, including the hot field of cyberspace. And in an age where the military increasing relies on computers, networks, unmanned systems and other electronic systems, Keesler is a center for technologies of the future.
“It is both a university from the perspective that you have graduate level and undergraduate, and also a community college – teaching a trade and developing journeymen who will become craftsmen,” said Brig. Gen. Ian Dickinson, commander of the 81st.
The base
Keesler is one of the largest technical training centers in the Air Force, but it’s also home to one of the largest medical facility in the Air Force, as well as the 403rd Wing of the Air Force Reserve, best-known for the Hurricane Hunters.
Keesler, established in 1941, is west of downtown Biloxi, bordered on the north by Back Bay and on the remaining sides by residential and commercial areas. Mississippi Sound is a half-mile south, and beyond that the Gulf of Mexico.
Part of the Texas-based Air Education and Training Command, Keesler is headquarters of the 2nd Air Force and the 81st Training Wing. In addition to training airmen, Keesler trains sailors, Marines and foreign students.
The number of people associated with the base, military and civilian personnel and dependents, is between 15,000 and 16,000. Some live on base, some off. Dickinson places the “workforce” at between 6,000 to 7,000.
Keesler has an annual operating budget of about $480 million, but between 2006 and 2009 close to $1 billion in additional money has come in for hurricane-related construction.
“I have never been on a base that had this much military construction going on all at the same time,” said Dickinson.
The rebuilding included replacing facilities, building on higher ground, hardening facilities and speeding up some projects.
Base as educator
“The absolute No. 1 key mission for my wing is preparing airmen to take on their specialty within the United States Air Force,” said Dickinson.
Keesler is one of the four primary bases where airmen are educated in a variety of fields. The other three are Lackland Air Force Base, Goodfellow Air Force Base and Sheppard Air Force Base, all in Texas.
“Usually, our specialties are only taught at one place,” said Dickinson. And for Keesler, that specialty is the wide-ranging field of electronics. “For as long as we’ve been doing electronics in the Air Force we’ve been teaching about electronics at Keesler.”
But other courses are taught as well, including financial management and hospital administration.
Since 1942, Keesler has graduated more than 2.2 million students. The training group, a Community College of the Air Force institute, is accredited by the Commission of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The 81st Training Group, the largest electronics training group in the world, annually provides training for 20,000 and 30,000 officers, enlisted and civilian employees of the Department of Defense, contractors and allied nations. Last year the number was 27,000, a figure that does not include medical personnel trained by the co-located 81st Medical Group.
While a comparison to a civilian school is inexact, numbers from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College put Keesler’s education role in perspective. Some 37,000 people were served at MGCCC last year, including academic, technical, career, workforce, continuing education and other non-credit seminars and workshops. Of those, 1,525 students received associates degrees and/or diplomas in May 2009.
The students who come to Keesler directly from basic training stay from a couple of weeks to a year. These non-prior service students numbers about 1,800. The rest, about 900, are personnel who have been based elsewhere and come to Keesler for retraining in a second, third or fourth job or advanced training. Nearly all officers fall into that category.
“Between those two, that’s where we get half that uniform population,” Dickinson said.
Future
In an age where the military is facing new adversaries and types of warfare, Keesler will play a crucial role in the future.
“I don’t see us picking up training missions from other bases,” said Dickinson, but he does expect a “broadening” of the Keesler mission that will coincide with the growth of the electronics industry.
An example of the broadening is the decision to establish the undergraduate cyberspace training program at Keesler. It will provide the leaders and technicians that will give the United States protection against attack, as well as an offensive capability.
The training includes information to design, secure, access, exploit, attack, and defend seven types of communications networks: telephones, internet protocol, satellites, land mobile radio, industrial central systems, integrated air defense, and tactical data link.
“We’ve been teaching about the cyber domain for the life of Keesler,” said Dickinson.
Communications, computer technology, air traffic control, and electronics have been taught for years, and the repackaging and expansion of these courses will become the core of the new undergraduate cyberspace training courses.
Lt. Gen. Clark Griffith, the retired former commander of both Keesler and the 2nd Air Force, is excited about the training in the cyberspace domain. He knows the importance of Keesler’s technical training to the Air Force – and to the South Mississippi economy.
“This new cyberspace schoolhouse brings yet another high-tech industrial capability to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Future expansion of this vital national requirement will certainly happen,” said Griffith.
