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United States Air Force

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  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Janiqua P. Robinson
  • Airman Magazine

  “We are not professional education, we are professional military education. That end becomes very important because we are warfighters. Our job is lethality. When you use lethality, you have to have standards, you have to have discipline. Those are the things that are the cornerstones of what we do.”

- Col. Damian Schlussel, Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education commander

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Chief Master Sgt. Stefan Blazier, Air University (AU) command chief, poses for a photo at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., Sept. 23, 2024.

Chief Master Sgt. Stefan Blazier, Air University (AU) command chief, poses for a photo at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., Sept. 23, 2024. As the command chief, Blazier serves as the adviser to the AU commander on all matters affecting the quality, welfare, morale, readiness and leadership of service members assigned to more than 1,300 locations around the world. AU is the intellectual and leadership-development center for the Air Force and Space Force that graduates more than 50,000 resident and 120,000 non-resident Total Force Airmen, each year. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Janiqua P. Robinson)
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  Chief Master Sgt. Stefan Blazier, Air University command chief, and Col. Damian Schlussel, Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education commander, discuss the importance of discipline and being ready to train on day one. 



Col. Damian Schlussel, commander of the Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education, poses for a photo in his office at Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Ala., Sept. 24, 2024.

Col. Damian Schlussel, commander of the Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education, poses for a photo in his office at Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Ala., Sept. 24, 2024. The Barnes Center is named after the Air Force’s fourth Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, the first African American to attain the highest enlisted position in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. The Barnes Center is responsible for all stateside Noncommissioned Officer Academies, the Community College of the Air Force, the Senior NCO Academy, the Chief Leadership Course, the Air Force Enlisted Heritage Research Institute, and the Enlisted Professional Military Education Instructor Course. It also provides content, curriculum and guidance for all Airman Leadership Schools, Foundations courses and overseas NCO Academies. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Janiqua P. Robinson)
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Read more about how the Air Force is educating Airmen for the future.
Education & Training Air University Air Education and Training and Command Maxwell Air Force Base