Deployments make pursuing educational opportunities simpler

Published April 8, 2010
By Senior Airman Mindy Bloem
506th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs

Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq -- Instead of just working out your body at the gym during your deployment downtime, the Kirkuk Regional Air Base education center presents the opportunity to work out your mind too.

Tech. Sgt. Thomas Dotson, 506th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron, is the test control officer at the Learning Resource Center here.

"My mission is to provide uninterrupted educational, upgrade and PME services and counseling to the Armed Forces," he said. "This position is critical in many ways. I am able to provide course exams and course enrollments to all career fields, enabling them to obtain their appropriate skill levels."

In addition to career development courses and professional military education services, various DANTES and college level entrance examinations are offered at the learning center.

"Educational growth is not only important for the member but also for the continued growth of the Air Force," said Sergeant Dotson. "These benefits help the members that take advantage of the opportunities available to them, but it also helps the rest of the Armed Services develop into a smarter force."

Staff Sgt. Anthony Cole, Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, said the learning center has been a good resource to use for his unit training, but he is also using it to help him get credits for his Community College of the Air Force degree.

"Today I'm here for personal reasons, just chipping away at my CCAF degree," he said. "I am pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice. To finish up, I need a couple of general education courses. Then I can transfer that to pursue a bachelor's degree for the future."

Sergeant Cole is deployed from the 101st Air Refueling Wing/SFS out of Bangor, Maine. He said it also helps with making promotion with his Air National Guard unit back home.

We have to go in front of a board, and every little thing you have done helps - whether it be education or volunteer time."

In Sergeant Cole's opinion, deployment presents the perfect time to pursue such endeavors.

"All you have is time here so going to the gym and getting my education out of the way are my main goals while I'm here, and it's all user friendly and allows you to get courses out of the way," he said. "Any forward learning you can do, I would recommend."

Sergeant Dotson uses his educational resources to help not only Air Force members like Sergeant Cole, but personnel at other bases as well. When Sergeant Dotson travels to another base, he takes two laptops that hold more than 1,600 tests.

"I have been able to help folks from different areas in Iraq but traveling to COB Speicher and testing folks there has been a highlight of my deployment so far," he said. "They don't have a test control officer. I enjoyed it (the visit) because the amount of testing I did there. I was there for 12 hours, and in that time, I did there what I'll do in a week here. It was just really fast paced. We tested half the population down there from the Air Force. That was rewarding just to be able to provide that service to them."

Sergeant Dotson said he likes the fact that his assistance here extends beyond just Air Force members. At his home station of Eielson AFB, Alaska, he works with only Air Force members.

"I really enjoy meeting people from several different career fields and working with the different branches of service," he said. "The Army doesn't have any educational representatives here, so it's nice to be able to help them out. It's satisfying to get them up to speed on their educational benefits."

Sergeant Dotson advises members looking to enhance their educational pursuits to start researching all of the possibilities.

"Ask questions," he said. "Stay involved. Log onto the portal and look at the virtual education sites. There's a plethora of information out there and a lot of available programs that give people degrees pretty rapidly. There are a lot of officer programs for the enlisted on there. This is a good opportunity to do it because we get a lot of down time while we're deployed."

Leave this deployment healthier and one step closer to your educational goals.