EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The 412th Test Wing celebrated its newest Technical Sergeants during a Technical Sergeant Release Party at Club Muroc on Edwards Air Force Base, California, July 18.
The noncommissioned officers received a congratulatory certificate from the 412th TW leadership. It was the culmination of a two-day seminar program that the Wing is testing out to better prepare them. It also affords senior NCOs the chance to relay their expectations of technical sergeants.
“We set up a two-day seminar…with panel interviews, professional development and time where they get to meet all the chiefs, and all the other senior NCOS on base, so they know who those resources are; (resources) that they can meet and talk to when they have a problem or a challenge,” said Command Chief Master Sgt. Ian Eishen, the 412th TW Command Chief.
Eishen also wanted to convey the importance of the tech sergeants’ promotion.
“We wanted to make sure that today was special, and it gave them the proper amount of congratulations that they deserved for this awesome achievement,” he said.
The two-day seminar featured discussions between the new technical sergeants and different levels of Base leadership. One such discussion featured a group of company-grade officers. The two groups exchanged ideas to better communicate expectations between them.
“Tech sergeant is an important rank, you’re not a brand new NCO any more, and you’re not a senior NCO, but there are different challenges and different expectations for tech sergeants,” Eishen said. “So we wanted to make sure that we created a venue to help relay those expectations.”
Eishen added that they are looking to do something similar with other rank promotions, namely with master sergeants. The overall goal in these type of seminars was to better prepare an Airman into their new rank.
“We don’t want them to go into this new rank alone, we want them to know that they have an awesome team behind them, but in order for them to use that team, they need to know the team,” he said.