Nearly Half Of The Trainees Have Gone AWOL

A program to train pilots for close air support attack roles in Afghanistan has been closed down after nearly half the trainees went AWOL, leaving enough pilots to graduate only one class after about 18 months of the program's existence.

The training was being conducted in Cessna AC-208 light attack combat aircraft in the U.S. According to a quarterly report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), those students that did not go AWOL were pulled back to Afghanistan to complete their training: as a result, only one class graduated from the U.S.-based program. The second and third classes will continue and finish their training in Afghanistan.

TAAC-Air has a plan to continue the student training and is developing a contract solution to support the effort to train the initial group of AC-208 aircrew. TAAC-Air said the C-208 trainees continue to progress to a self-sustaining level of proficiency.

Fox news reports that the training was being conducted at Meacham Airport in Fort Worth, TX by the Train Advise Assist Command-Air (TAAC-Air). The instructors came from NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.

It is not known where the trainees who went AWOL are now located, though Fox News reports that such incidents involving foreign military trainees is not uncommon. SIGAR reported in 2017 that almost half of the 320 foreign military personnel brought to the U.S. for training have walked away from their bases. Some seek asylum after being caught, according to the report.

(Image from file)

FMI: SIGAR report
Source report