I finally got my sensors to train after many frustrating tries on multiple days. I purchased a set of wheels with tires from a forum member and they are only two years old by the date codes on the tires, so the batteries in the sensors should be good. I got a TPMS light and tried training them multiple ways.
One was making sure the air in the tires were good, then getting the car into learning mode, then releasing the air to get the BCM to recognize the sensor. Tried multiple times and couldn't get them to train.
So I bought the Motorcraft activation tool and tried the method at the beginning of this thread. Tried it a dozen times, still didn't work. All it did was frustrate the poop out of me. Went for a short drive, because I learned that centrifugal forces gets the sensors to "wake up". Parked the car, got it into training mode and went around the car with the activation tool. Worked like a champ.