MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- “The Air Force benefits from the work historians do,” said 908th Flying Training Wing Commander, Col. Christopher K. Lacouture, in a letter to the 25 participants of the second annual Air Force Reserve Command Historian Symposium, Sept. 17-19, 2024, at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. “When history is not catalogued and studied, the benefit of those lessons is lost.”
The letter was read by 908th FTW Historian, Mr. Ken Tilley, to the Director of the Department of the Air Force History and Museums Program, field historians, and representatives from Headquarters AFRC Office of Historical Services team, Air Force Materiel Command and Air Mobility Command in attendance on the first day of the symposium.
According to the event’s organizer, HQ AFRC Director, Office of Historical Services, Dr. Michael Dolski, the purpose of the symposium was to further operationalize AFRC’s award-winning history program.
“We are spending time together to discuss ways to enhance the historical support we provide to leaders as they prepare the Air Force Reserve for Great Power Competition,” Dolski said. “From documenting the tremendous changes of the present, to deploying historical information gathered in the past, we are here to ensure that AFRC’s history program is impactful, informative, and inspiring.”
Over the course of the symposium, participants engaged in discussions, briefings and hands-on training in areas such as historian deployed operations, military decision-making, sources and weaponizing the archives and technical writing among others. The group also engaged with their mission partner, the team at the Air Force Historical Research Agency to boost collaboration and draw the Air Force history enterprise into the digital domain, according to Dolski.
For many in attendance, like 944th Fighter Wing Historian, Ms. Jessica Lawson, the interaction and discussions with other AFRC historians was as valuable as the training.
“The training was really amazing,” she said. “And being able to connect with my fellow historians face to face, to have the opportunity to sit down and talk about our programs and see what others are doing, is really beneficial because we swap ideas with others who understand the job.”
Col. Shane Devlin, 908th Operations Group commander, also spoke at the symposium, reassuring the historians the work they do is invaluable, and that it was the job of leaders such as himself to appreciate it and set the example for others take it seriously.
“We need to mentor the leaders of the future, so we don’t replicate the mistakes of the past,” he said. “Why else would we capture the past if we don’t learn from it?”
The HQ AFRC Office of Historical Services was happy to have the 908th FTW and Maxwell AFB host this year’s symposium and intends to make it an annual event.