NCO Academy to close Published May 29, 2008 By Tech. Sgt. Carissa Lee 17th Training Wing Public Affairs GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Just shy of reaching the 50-years in business mark, the Goodfellow Noncommissioned Officer Academy closes its doors Wednesday in an inactivation ceremony. After graduating more than 15,000 students trained to be professional, war-fighting Airmen who can lead and manage Air Force units in the employment of air and space power, the Goodfellow NCO Academy will now become a part of the Air Force's heritage in providing professional military education to technical sergeants. The decision to close the Academy, along with three others in the United States, will consolidate training by downsizing the remaining number of academies to four. The remaining academies are located at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.; Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.; Gunter Annex, Ala.; Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and McGhee-Tyson Air National Guard Base in Alcoa, Tenn. Air University will continue to provide the highest quality of professional military education in a more efficient manner and will enable the Chief of Staff of the Air Force's priorities. Furthermore, this endeavor will establish centers similar to the Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Academy model, which provides training at a central location for all senior NCOs. More than 300 classes of technical sergeants have passed through the doors of Goodfellow's Academy. Each Airman graduated after studying a curriculum of the Profession of Arms, Leadership and Communication Skills. The lessons in these curriculum areas are distributed throughout the four graduate attributes--military professional, combat leader, unit manager and managerial communicator. Upon graduation, the Community College of the Air Force grants 11 semester hours to each graduate for course completion. The ceremony takes place Wednesday at 9 a.m.
