Senior Master Sgt. Justin Price, 1st Air force Logistics Directorate, makes opening comments to students during the first day of “Backbone University” July 24. Price helped lead the effort to offer the course here based on his positive experience with it at a previous assignment. Backbone University is a professional military education opportunity to gather and educate mid-level NCOs and petty officers from across NORAD and U.S. military services about joint operations and interoperability in a no-syllabus, open-ended forum. Its content is based on the senior enlisted advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff handbook, “The Noncommissioned Officer and the Petty Officer, BACKBONE of the Armed Forces.” Local senior enlisted facilitators each presented a chapter to the whole group, and then participants split into smaller, open-discussion groups. This class included Canadian military, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. (Air Force photo by Mary McHale)