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Afghan Air Force graduates Pre-Undergraduate Flight Indoctrination course

  • Published
  • By Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Jared E. Walker
  • 438th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
KABUL, Afghanistan --  Fifteen members of the Afghan Air Force graduated from the pre-undergraduate flight indoctrination at Pohantoon-e-Hawayee, the Afghan Air Force's "Big Air School," on the Afghan Air Force base in Kabul, Afghanistan Mar. 10.

Lt. Col. Sheenwarai Matiuallah, the Chief of Staff at PeH, told the graduating members that he was very honored to take part in the graduation of the second group of officer candidate school but he stressed that this is just the beginning of their training.

"You have only received a drop in the ocean of your professional training. What you are going to face in the future when you receive your training overseas is going to be very complicated work and you will be taking English training as well," said Colonel Matiuallah.

Lt. Col. Ryan Nichols, Commander of the 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron spoke to the graduating class and stressed the importance of their journey towards becoming fully qualified AAF pilots.

"In the United States Air Force, we do not just think of ourselves as pilots but as professional aviators. We see ourselves as professional military aviators because we fly weapons systems. Flying the aircraft is only a small part of the mission. So I encourage you to think about the training and your school and enjoy the adventure that you are on and to not forget about your goals but be ready for big challenges in your future," said Colonel Nichols.

Temor Shah Rigiwal, Aerial Technical Group PeH Program Manager and Liaison officer followed Colonel's Nichols speech on the importance of the instructors.

"Recently in the news, both local and international, there is a big deal about transfer of responsibility of security forces from coalition forces to the Afghan military. Afghan commanders say that they are ready to stand up and take over but there is one thing that we are lacking in the Afghan Air Force and that is having good instructors. Only by having good instructors will we be able to teach Afghan Air Force the skills that they need to be a fully capable, working force," said Mr. Rigiwal.

This class is one of many the steps in training new pilots and building up the AAF by 2016.