RANDOLPH AFB, TX – The Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) announced Friday the fielding of a Computer Based Training (CBT) module to reduce the time spent on CBTs.

“This is the Air Force’s attempt to reduce the time spent on mandatory CBTs,” said LtCol Michael Lee, AFPC Coordinator for Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century (AFSO21). “There are multiple and redundant CBTs airman must accomplish each year along with many more that must be completed the last week prior to deployment.”

“This CBT alone will save the Air Force an estimated $1.3 billion and countless man hours,” Lee said. “With the drawdown of forces and tightening of budgets, this innovative idea could possibly save the Air Force. We believe this will collectively save 4500 years of airmen’s time.”

AFSO21 is an AF program intended to make operations leaner and more efficient while still improving quality.

Meeting in a small office tucked away in the meandering halls of AFPC headquarters at Lackland AFB, Lee provided Duffel Blog a personal lesson on the innovative techniques. After thirty minutes of failed attempts to log into the network however, LtCol Lee spent part of his afternoon across town fixing account problems.

Once on the AF network in his office, Lee mentioned the CBT is found on Airmen Distance Learning Service (ADLS). In order to complete the training, personnel need to create a 21-digit password, that includes 7 numbers, 5 special characters, and 2 upper and 7 lower case letters. The high-security pass code must also rhyme with “unicorn”.

“It may take 10-15 minutes to get the right combination,” Lee said, “but it will be well worth it in the end. In addition, this will re-hack the password creation training the Air Force mandates. Airmen still need to complete the 60 question test on ADLS in order to receive full credit.”

The 45 slide training presentation takes about 90 minutes to complete. Lee walked through the slides mentioning, “these techniques can be used in all parts of the Air Force and could possibly save the Air Force.”

“The key to reducing time spent on CBTs,” Lee read from the slides, “is to not read any of the information in the CBTs. Individuals should just click through all the slides as fast as possible. If there are any tests or quizzes, get the answers from Wikianswers or a fellow Airman.”

Lee’s team of 25 airmen developed this technique over a 2-year period. Following the full implementation, they feel it will make for significant changes to the way business is done.

“Airmen will complete their non-stop list of CBTs much faster,” said Captain Matthew Green, the program CBT’s coordinator. “Hopefully they will apply this technique to every aspect of the Air Force from finance to flying.”

“Hell,” Green said, “this should be applied to every aspect of Air Force culture. Before you know it, all boring commander’s calls and SARC briefings will be whittled down to nothing.”

After two weeks of fielding the training, the AFPC AFSO21 team reported no significant decrease in CBT times. The ADLS tech support though has reported a record number of phone calls related to password creation.