More alike than different

Master Sgt. Holger Fels, a 15-year veteran professional military education instructor in the German Air Force, is no stranger to teaching professional development to Airmen in Germany’s 70 thousand-member “Luftwaffe.” What he’s not so familiar with is how to impart the same type of knowledge to Airmen in America’s Air Force.

Recently hand-selected from 200 of his fellow PME instructors at Germany’s “Unteroffizierschule der Luftwaffe” (Noncommissioned Officer School of the Air Force), Sergeant Fels is preparing for an upcoming special duty assignment as an exchange instructor at the U.S. Air Force’s Senior NCO Academy at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

***image1***Wanting a first-hand look at the “philosophies and teaching styles” of the U.S. Air Force PME curriculum, Sergeant Fels decided to join 139 technical sergeants in a six-week course at U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s Kisling NCO Academy at Kapaun. 
Looking beyond the uniquely mottled field uniform and the Germanic dialect, Sergeant Fels appeared right at home among his 14 American classmates.

In addition to learning U.S. Air Force acronyms – which the German Air Force also has – and understanding the difference between bullet statements, memorandums and narrative writing, Sergeant Fels has had to adjust to the way in which information is structured and presented in class.

“In our school, one flight may be doing PT while another flight is in the classroom learning about leadership and another is in the field on the shooting range,” he said, contrasting the German NCO School’s curriculum to Air Education and Training Command’s uniform style of having all flight instructors presenting the same information simultaneously.

***image2***“American instructors must follow plans and outlines … and we have the freedom to do what we want and how we want. But in the end, everyone has learned the same.”

Sergeant Fels has spent all but the first year of his enlistment in the German Air Force as an instructor in one capacity or another. A year after joining in October 1992, he was selected to become an instructor specializing in air base ground defense. Later he became a nuclear, chemical and biological warfare instructor for pre-deployment training. In 1999, he began instructing at the German Air Force’s NCO school in Appen – located just outside the northern port city of Hamburg.

Little did he know upon becoming an instructor at the Appen-based Noncommissioned Officer School that the academic institution had formalized an exchange instructor partnership with the U.S. Air Force Senior NCO Academy at Maxwell Air Force Base.

In the nearly 12 years that the exchange instructor program has existed between Air University’s top enlisted school and the German Air Force, the three exchange instructors that have filled the four-year special duty assignment ahead of Sergeant Fels have come from his school.

Similarly, the U.S. Air Force has reciprocated in this exchange program by sending American PME inst-ructors to teach in four-year special duty billets at the Appen NCO School. Because of the requirement for American instructors to be fluent in the German language, the challenge for the Air Force to find suitable candidates has been much greater.

One of Sergeant Fels’ classmates, Special Agent Seth Flinchbaugh of OSI Detachment 515, said sharing the six-week course with Sergeant Fels has been enjoyable.

“His English is impeccable for a non-native speaker and his briefings are better than some of those done by fellow classmates.”

Special Agent Flinchbaugh learned German and Arabic through the Defense Language Institute and said he assists Sergeant Fels when he has questions about the English language.

“I know that if I have to speak German more than one hour in my job, it’s mentally draining. I can’t imagine how tiring it must be to speak another language for eight hours a day.”

Another fellow student, Tech. Sgt. Eric Corriveau, 435th Security Forces Squadron, said it would be beneficial to have foreign nationals in all professional military education classes.

“It always adds something to PME. He knows a lot about our military and customs – and knowing he will be a Senior NCO Academy instructor, I’d recommend him to any of my coworkers,” he said.

Pondering the disparities between the German and American Air Forces, the 35-year-old husband and father of two said the two militaries are more alike than different and that the international partnership “is like a friendship” that requires a commitment to spending time together.

After laying his bookbag on a desk, Sergeant Fels pulled out a small grey book with silver embossed text bearing the words, “TEAM LUFTWAFFE.”

Translating part of the cover he said, “It’s our book of moral guidelines.” Opening the book, he loosely translated a few of its passages that rang eerily familiar. “Be tolerant, know your history, use creativity, service before self, support your comrades …”

Sergeant Fels will officially report for instructor duty at Maxwell Air Force Base in April 2009.