News

RNCOA leaving behind a historical legacy

  • Published
  • By Holly Birchfield
  • 78 ABW/PA
Robins Air Force Base, Ga. --  The Robins NCO Academy is leaving behind not only a history of high professional military education standards, but also the footprints of community support, as the school prepares to inactivate Tuesday.

The school, which has graduated more than 67,000 NCOs in its lifetime, has a rich and storied history.

Enlisted professional military education started at Robins in May 1958. It was named the NCO Preparatory School. In July 1970, the NCO academy at McClellan Air Force Base, Calif., transferred to Robins and consolidated with ongoing PME programs at the base.

The school then became known as the Air Force Logistics Command NCO Leadership School. In October 1970, the school was designated as the AFLC NCO Academy/ Leadership School.

In 1984, Robins established the U.S. Air Force NCO Preparatory Course, and three of the existing four levels of enlisted PME came under control of the school.

The school became the Airman Leadership School in 1991, and two years later, it received its final name change to the Robins NCO Academy.

Chief Master Sgt. Roy Lapioli, commandant at the RNCOA since July 2006, said Robins has offered enlisted PME courses long before the school was given its current name.

"While our forerunner was an NCO academy, we started our enlisted PME here as an NCO orientation course which was intended to get people ready to become NCOs," he said. "From there, we started picking up different professional military education programs."

Throughout its lifetime, the Robins NCOA has had a great impact on the enlisted force, Chief Lapioli said.

"All of Robins' enlisted folks, when they were eligible to go to that particular level of school, they got to go to the Robins NCO Academy," he said. "That isn't the only students received and taught here."

Chief Lapioli said over the years, RNCOA instructors have taught active-duty, Guard, and Reserve members Air Force-wide. He has seen firsthand how the school has produced phenomenal NCO leaders.

While the school is closing, some of its artifacts will be displayed in a section of the Wynn Dining Facility and given to Robins' ALS to remind people of its heritage.

Other relics will go to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, and the Air Force Enlisted Research Institute, formerly known as the Enlisted Heritage Hall at Maxwell-Gunter AFB, Ala.