By Lt Col Justin Hall, AFIT/CES

The AFIT Force Support Department (formerly Services Department) will transition all of its courses from Wright-Patterson AFB to the Eaker College of Professional Development (ECPD) at Maxwell AFB, AL. ECPD will merge the AFIT Force Support courses with their Human Resouce Management School courses to form the new Force Support Professional Development School. This transition will be completed by 1 October 2009. The courses being transferred include the Force Support Leadership Course, four Force Support flight chief courses, Mortuary Officer’s Course, Mortuary Technician’s Course, Protocol Fundamentals Course and four contingency courses. Previously, the AFIT Services Initial Skills Training (IST) Course was merged with the manpower and personnel IST course at Keesler AFB in June 2008.

This merger decision was driven by the recent merger of Services career field with the Manpower and Personnel career field. The AU/CC made the final decision to merge the school programs on 17 March 2009. This transfer concludes a proud Services education tradition at AFIT that started in 1986 when the Services School house was relocated to AFIT from Lowery AFB, CO.