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Article: The Flyboys Get Tough.(U.S. Air Force training)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- April 24, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Generations of airmen have gone through the same drill at Air Force basic training: learning how to fold their clothes in precise 6-inch squares. Using tweezers to line up the folds of T-shirts exactly took hours. In fact, when the Air Force studied this test of precision and discipline, they discovered that the folding drill took 16 hours or more of training time over the 6 1/2-week basic course. But mastering precise folds is a skill of more use in a Banana Republic store than in the Iraqi republic.
With more and more airmen being deployed to hot war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force leaders decided last year that they needed more focus on combat ...