Sitting behind his desk, Isaac looks like any other sharp airman serving on active duty. He’s about average height and average build. His demeanor around his co-workers is often soft-spoken and laid back as kindness and consideration underlie his actions.

However, trainees in the vicinity will cause Isaac’s own MTI training to kick in. His walk becomes as smooth and measured as a robot’s, his heels click the pavement, his posture becomes stiffer and his eyes scan the fresh faces.

“I’m making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing: marching — not talking — reading, and that their uniform is worn correctly.”

“We’re always evaluating,” he said. While he’s looking to correct flaws, he doesn’t do so gleefully. His goal is to see trainees successfully complete basic training.

“My job is to train people, not kick them out,” said Isaac. This may seem like an arrogant comment from a junior noncommissioned officer, but it’s not. It’s his job.

“I ask flights when they first come in, ‘Has anyone ever played sports?’ A few raise their hands. Then I ask, ‘Did everyone who tried out make the team?’ And, a few shake their heads ‘no.’ I then tell them, ‘That’s the Air Force. Not everyone is going to make the team.’ ”

Isaac, 27, has been an MTI for about three years and doesn’t regret one day of it. The former security forces airman said he was previously a supervisor and didn’t like the quality of some of the people coming into the military. While the majority of the people he sees on active duty are as impressive as the next, he said he’s dealt with a few people who had a “me, me, me” attitude — “I didn’t like what I saw.”

So, answering an “ad” in the Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., base newspaper, Isaac worked the deal for a four-year tour to work long hours, see less of his wife and two kids, get a few extra bucks, and get free dry cleaning. The free stuff doesn’t seem to outweigh the long hours and decreased family time, so why would he do it? “Discipline” is Isaac’s answer. Not his personal discipline, the discipline of those coming into the military.

But Isaac didn’t always think that way. He thought the poor attitudes in some new airmen were because of poor training on the part of the MTIs. “When I came here, I found that wasn’t the problem.” The problem, he now knows, was on an individual basis. While in security forces, Isaac just happened to get the “team players” who weren’t on the starting lineup.

“This is an opportunity to see if I can have an effect,” he said. “I like training airmen. I like to see them when they get here. I like to see them when they leave. If you could see the transformation ... ,” he said while mentally searching for a way to finish the sentence.

“Parents tell me, ‘They’ve changed so much! I couldn’t do it in 18 years, and you did it in six weeks.’ That’s a good feeling,” Isaac said with a smile.

Issac realizes that when a class graduates, it does more than go “somewhere in the Air Force.” Airmen fill jobs on the flight line, in offices, at the gate and in the base clinic, for example.

“I have no problem taking my daughter to the immunizations clinic,” he said. “I know they’re disciplined.”