The blue, round-brimmed hat of the 6-foot-3 military training instructor towers over the unfortunate young trainee who attracted its wearer’s attention. The eyes of the future Airmen on the trainee’s left and right widen as they stand at attention, relieved they aren’t on the receiving end of this specific example of what the MTI calls “the shock and awe effect.”
“Don’t shake your head at the position of attention, trainee,” Tech. Sgt. Chananyah S. Stuart corrects in his distinct Virgin Islands’ accent. “You will pay attention to me, whether you want to or not. You will pay attention to everything I say and everything I’m going to do.”
Later, one of the witnesses of the flight’s first encounter with its MTI, Trainee Charles Stackhouse expressed feelings of apprehension about what Stuart would be like as an instructor.“My first impression of Tech. Sgt. Stuart was a little scary,” said Stackhouse, who would eventually become the flight’s element leader. “I wasn’t exactly intimidated, but it was different from anything I’d ever experienced, and I was definitely nervous.”
Tech. Sgt. Chananyah Stuart reminds a trainee of the procedures for entering the dining facility. Stuart, a 323rd Training Squadron military training instructor, is extra demanding on his trainees from the very beginning because he believes it sets them up for success.
Little do the members of the 323rd Training Squadron’s Flight 552 realize how their impressions of their MTI will change throughout the eight-and-a-half weeks of basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. By the mid-point of their training, Stackhouse, dorm chief Justin Parker, and others will not only adopt some of their MTI’s favorite sayings like “speed and intensity,” but also his marching cadence, complete with his accent on certain syllables. Flight 552 forms for the first time at about 1 a.m. outside the base’s new BMT Reception Center, located a conveniently short march across the drill pad to the squadron. Stuart is joined by five other MTIs to help “motivate” the flight as he marched them to their home for the next few months.“We will do everything quick, fast and in a hurry,” Stuart tells his new flight. The trainees will soon learn that everything their MTI tells them will include those same three ingredients. The trainees’ night of shock and awe continues as they are introduced to their dormitory. Stuart has a lot of information to give the trainees and only an hour and a half before 2:30 a.m., when they need to be in their bunks with lights out.“Face your wall lockers right now,” he tells them. “Yell out that number. Find the number on your bed right now. Find your security drawer right now.”Later, Stuart gives the 52 trainees one of the biggest lessons they will learn during “zero week,” when he shows them around their dorm. Tech. Sgt. Chananyah Stuart inspects his flight’s dorm after a surprise inspection produced several discrepancies. Flight 552 is in their final week of training, and Stuart, a military training instructor, uses the inspections to fight complacency amongst the trainees. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen)“This is no longer called a bathroom,” Stuart says. “It is the latrine. You are not at home anymore.”The Flight 552 trainees might have been surprised to learn their MTI has not always been comfortable with raising his voice. Stuart learned his MTI package was approved while en route to a deployment in Afghanistan in 2011. The generally soft-spoken civil engineer NCO trained his voice to become accustomed to yelling by the time he reported for MTI duty in June 2012. Stuart’s fellow MTIs have taken notice of the ease with which he transforms from an easygoing gentleman to get into a trainee’s face at the slightest drop in military bearing.“He will be smiling at you one minute, then his face turns to stone like a light switch,” said Staff Sgt. Dennis Weiss, as he watched Stuart counsel a trainee from the “Snake Pit,” the dreaded table where the instructors sit in the dining facility. “All you see is this instant change of face.”Military training instructor, Master Sgt. Julio Alarcon, asks a basic military trainee why he can’t deliver a proper military reporting statement. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen) Stuart is always wearing the stern face when he teaches drill, how to give a reporting statement, the wearing of the uniform, and making dust cover beds because he considers all four indicators of the flight’s progress, as well as for individual trainees.“The beds are the meat and potatoes of the dorm,” Stuart said. “If the beds look good, you know it will be an outstanding flight. If not, you can tell the flight doesn’t have that pride. So you have to be sure you give them that good info.”MTIs must also keep vital flight information accessible at all times. Like all MTIs at Lackland, Stuart must carry a flight notebook whenever he leads a flight. The notebook includes the weekly schedule, flight roster, appointment slips and the white armband roster, which identifies any trainees who are especially susceptible to the heat. Inside Stuart’s hat is a heat chart that tells him what he’s allowed to do with the trainees under conditions that put the squadron under red or black flag. His own water bottle is in one hand or nearby any time he’s outside under the late-summer San Antonio sun. Despite the heat, both from the Texas summer and from their instructor,the flightsurvived zero week, and moved on to the first full week of training, which consists of M-16 weapon identification, breakdown and assembly; maintaining the trainees’ personal living areas and Stuart’s favorite – marching and drill.“Let’s go! You are way too slow for my taste right now,” he yells at one trainee before pulling him out of formation for more intensive drill intervention. Military training instructor, Tech. Sgt. Chananyah Stuart, leads Flight 552 on the “Airman’s Run” in the basic military training reception center auditorium. Stuart keeps his flight in step by calling cadence with his fingers because the noise made by cheering parents and family members make it difficult for trainees to hear him. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen)“We see everything,” Stuart tells the trainee. “If we see something and don’t say anything, it’s probably just because we have given up on that trainee. But we see everything.”Toward the end of the first full week, there is a subtle change in how the instructor barks out orders. He begins to let them in on the reasoning behind the madness, as when he checks to make sure everyone’s buttons are fastened on their Airman battle uniform.“I want to see if you are paying attention to detail,” Stuart tells his flight. “Why? Because many of you will be working on aircraft. If you can’t put that one screw where it’s supposed to go, millions of dollars and some lives go down the drain. This is why we do everything we do, so you can pay attention to detail.” “Right now, they are starting to see the big picture,” Stuart said later. “Because everything we do right now, we relate to the big picture of the operational Air Force.”In the second week of training, as the flight begins classes to prepare for the Basic Expeditionary Airmen Skills Training, which occurs in week six, drill training makes major strides. Stuart teaches marching concepts, such as left and right step, columns left and right, formation of the flight, rest positions, how to count off, and other essential drill concepts. The trainees are also becoming proficient in making their beds the way he taught them, along with their dorm details.“Good to hook?” Stuart asks the flight after teaching them columns left and right, his way of checking for comprehension. Another time, he concludes a correction with, “It’s common sense,” spreading his arms wide to emphasize the point. During week three, trainees receive their name tags and tapes, dog tags and their common access cards, which are kept with their paperwork until they leave BMT. Stuart also teaches them about their military pay. Other than a few infractions, for the most part, Stuart is pleased with the flight’s progress. He can hear the confidence in how they are snapping off their reporting statements.“Every time you do something well that we tell you to do, you’re getting closer to becoming Airmen,” he tells them. Tech. Sgt. Chananyah Stuart, a military training instructor, stands in front of his flight before beginning physical training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. The flight is in its eighth and final week of Air Force basic military training. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen) By week four, Stuart has the flight moving on to what he likes to call “cruise control.” He no longer has to tell them everything, because they have become self-sufficient in many ways. When a trainee does step out of line, the flight’s leaders often correct the problem without Stuart getting involved.“We use (cruise control) because it’s like having a vehicle training itself,” Stuart said. “It’s like being on auto-pilot and having an airplane go up into the sky, and as soon as it gets into the sky, it begins to fly itself.”The trainees test their endurance, strength and willpower on the obstacle course. They also learn team-building as they cheer each other on as they overcome each of the 20 obstacles. In week five, the trainees have their flight and individual photos taken, and Stuart stresses proper hydration and foot care. He begins pre-deployment preparation for the BEAST the following week, making sure every trainee has items needed from the BEAST Deployment Packing List. He leads the flight in a bag drag, a quick inspection of items needed to take to the BEAST. Once at the BEAST, when trainees get the opportunity to apply what they have learned in a deployed, war-time environment, the flight shows signs of what their MTI taught them through the first four weeks of training. The BEAST includes a weapons familiarization course; firing on the combat arms training and maintenance range; self-aid and buddy care scenarios; training to fight combatives with pugil sticks; and the Creating Leaders, Airmen and Warriors mission, which recently replaced the obstacle course. On the new course, the objectives are considered checkpoints rather than obstacles. The night before the culminating exercise at the end of BEAST week, Stackhouse and Parker enjoy the chance to focus on just being trainees without the burden of leadership duties.“We made a lot of mistakes in the first exercise, and it gradually got better,” Parker said. “All we could do was pinpoint those things we were still having trouble with and work on them.”At the end of week six, members of Flight 552 and several other flights in Sentinel, their living area zone, captures the BEAST Excellence Award by earning the fewest demerits in the culminating exercise. The award gives the flight 10 points toward becoming honor flight. A week later, Stuart learns the flight has won honor flight, making Flight 552 the top flight of all those graduating BMT that week. Honor flights traditionally receive an extra town pass during graduation week. Military training instructor, Tech. Sgt. Chananyah Stuart, inspects Flight 552′s guidon bearer, Airman Calvin Kim, before the graduation ceremony at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen)“Tech. Sgt. Stuart represents the very best aspects of our United States Air Force and the exceptional basic military training instructors assigned to the 37th Training Wing,” said. Col. Trent H. Edwards, the 37th TRW commander. “I am proud, not only of his individual leadership accomplishment, but the accomplishments of the members of Flight 552 for the team effort it took to be recognized as the honor flight.”In week seven, Stuart has his trainees complete their first Joint Hometown News Program release, and they take their written tests and complete their final evaluations in drill and physical fitness. In their final week, they see downtown San Antonio for the first time in two months, since they left the airport for the 30-minute bus ride to BMT. Once they receive their Airman’s coins at the Airman Coin and Retreat Ceremony, they can finally be called Airmen, and their big week concludes with their parade and graduation ceremony. Even though the flight took top honors, both at BEAST and in being named honor flight, Stuart’s impact was perhaps best illustrated in how the Flight 552 trainees adopted certain aspects of their instructor’s personality and teachings. Once, another MTI said he heard Stuart’s distinctive voice leading the flight in drill in the squadron atrium, or so he thought. The voice actually belonged to Parker, the flight’s dorm chief. As the trainees took on many of Stuart’s words, they also developed a deep respect, as their instructor knew they would from that first night’s march across the parade field.
“In the beginning, Tech. Sgt. Stuart was the only MTI I’d ever known, so I figured they were all like him,” Stackhouse said.. “Then, as the weeks progressed, I realized that he is actually, if not the best, one of the best MTIs out there, just from hearing other MTIs and flights talking about him and holding him in such high regard. It just makes me feel blessed to have been trained by him.”
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