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Building an education: New school offers improved facilities

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Stacia Zachary
  • 43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  Editor's note: Pope continues to improve its buildings and resources to better support the Air Force and better train and equip its Airmen. The Carolina Flyer will continue to give construction updates.
The instructors and students of the 342nd Training Squadron Combat Control School are looking forward to moving into their new digs. The new schoolhouse will overlook the flightline and Manchester Park and will boast a facility large enough to house 100 students and more than 25 instructors.
The current campus is comprised of one building for its weight room, instructor offices, heritage hall and one classroom, three trailers for additional classrooms and locker rooms, a warehouse to hold its training equipment and a climbing wall.
"We are trying to get away from people working in areas not designed for office use," said Senior Master Sgt. Marshall Farris, 342nd TRS commandant. "This campus served its purpose very well when we were only graduating 50 students a year. Now that we are trying to train that many a month, the building has become antiquated."
Poised to open up the career field to encompass double the amount of operators it currently has on active duty, the new schoolhouse will be able to better accommodate this growing need.
"We need to train more Airmen to make our operators a stronger, bigger and more deadly threat," said Sergeant Farris. "The best way to do that is to give us a better environment to train and prepare our Airmen in. This new schoolhouse will do just that."
The new campus will have an indoor pool to allow the instructors and students to train at any time of the year; an indoor firing range with nine 25 meter firing lanes equipped to fire non-frangable bullets; a new gym to support the strength training; and an academic building with larger classrooms and instructor offices. Although there will not be a climbing tower on this new campus, there is room set aside for one to be constructed at a later date. Until then, the instructors will continue to use the climbing tower at its current location.