MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. (USTCNS) --- Merhaba. Nasilsiniz? Berim adim. If you happen to be walking the halls of the 350th Air Refueling Squadron this month, you just may hear some Turkish being spoken along with Chinese and English.

Approximately 11 Turkish Air Force members are here to receive training on the Compass, Radar, and Global Positioning System modification, most commonly referred to as Pacer CRAG.

Similar to the Republic of Singapore, Turkey, through the Foreign Military Sales contract, has elected to upgrade their KC-135 fleet with the Pacer CRAG configuration, and the 350th ARS is taking the lead on the training.

There are four pilots (all captains), 6 maintenance personnel (senior master and master sergeants), a boom operator, a chief master sergeant and a navigator (first lieutenant) here from the TuAF.

Lt. Col. Dana Stabin, assistant director of operations, 350th ARS and Capt. David Garcia, training section instructor pilot, 350th ARS, are spearheading the training for the Turkish students.

"The Turkish Air Force students will be trained, certified and qualified on the Pacer CRAG system," said Stabin. "The pilots, navigator and boom operator will receive ground and flight training. The ground training consists of academic instruction, simulators, part-task trainers and hot bench trainers -- a full scale mock-up of actual aircraft avionics equipment."

Stabin also said flight training would consist of up to four sorties, depending on crew position, followed by an in-flight evaluation.

The TuAF maintenance personnel will receive their training from the 373rd Training Squadron, detachment 8. "The TuAF maintainers will receive training on the Pacer CRAG, Block 30 aircraft,
which encompasses the latest avionics in the KC-135 aircraft," said Senior Master Sgt. Todd McNelly, detachment chief.

The maintainers also will get hands-on instruction in and out of the classroom and go away with the necessary skills to provide maintenance on their upgraded KC-135 fleet, said McNelly.

Most, if not all of the TuAF students, speak English. However, should the need arise for a translator, the 350th ARS can turn to Airman Ozan Senli, outpatients record clerk, 22nd Medical Group. Senli is fluent in Turkish and offered his help as soon as he heard about the arrival of the TuAF students.

"I'm very proud that I can help," he said. Senli is also excited about the opportunity to find out what's going on back home -- he was born in Turkey and lived in the city of Izmir until he was 18 years old.

"I hope to get a chance to talk with some of the students -- I don't get the opportunity to speak much Turkish, so talking to them will be great." (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).