Feature - 379th Air Expeditionary Wing

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Desert Eagle Volume 8, Issue 31 Editorial Staff Commander Brig. Gen. Michael Moeller Chief, Public Affairs Capt. Kristen Pate Superintendent, Public Affairs Senior Master Sgt. Chadwick Eiring NCOIC, News Master Sgt. Jeff Loftin Editor Senior Airman Clinton Atkins Multimedia Tech. Sgt. Michael Boquette Staff Sgt. Pedro Jimenez Staff Sgt. Darnell Cannady Airman 1st Class Chris Bevins Printed by QF&M, LLC, a private fi rm unconnected with the U.S. Air Force, under exclusive written contract with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing. This funded Air Force newspaper is an authorized publication for members of the U.S. military services overseas. Contents of the Desert Eagle aren’t necessarily the offi cial view of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense or the Department of the Air Force. The editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by the 379th AEW Public Affairs offi ce. All photographs are Air Force photographs unless otherwise indicated. Commentaries and warriors of the week are scheduled according to a squadron rotation. Unit commanders and fi rst sergeants are the points of contact for submissions. For more information, call 436-0107. Staff Sgt. Jonathan Foerst, communication navigation mission system craftsman for the 379th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, checks the serviceability of the circuit card of a sniper pod here Aug. 5. Sergeant Foerst, a native of San Diego, Calif., is deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Darnell T. Cannady) Commentary Are you ready? By Col. Marilyn Kott 379th Expeditionary Operations Group commander As military members, we continuously strive for readiness. When we entered the service, our trainers readied us for military life and for our particular skill sets. When we joined our operational units, those units prepared us for contingency taskings and for deployment duty. We readied ourselves and our families for deployment. As we arrived in this area of responsibility, our deployed units made fi nal inputs to our readiness, introducing us to the particular missions and duties we fulfi ll at this base. At each stage of military training and pre-deployment planning, we learned skills that we can and will contribute to the mission. Now that we’re here, it’s our job to come to the fi ght ready each day. Ready physically, ready in our job skills, and ready mentally. Because each day, people at this base and in the AOR count on us. Because each day, the tasks we fulfi ll are important to our coalition and its combat operations, and because each day could be the day the extraordinary is asked of us. Consider the evening of April 4, right here at this air base. The crew of a B-1 bomber landed after a combat sortie. It was the end of the mission for them, they had spent the previous 12 or so hours providing air support for operations in the combat zone, and they were scheduled to land, debrief and return to crew rest. But April 4, the unexpected was about to happen. A mechanical failure in one of the brake components caused the aircraft to catch fi re. The burning aircraft rolled uncontrollably toward a ramp full of C- 130s. Suddenly, anyone near the site was faced with something they might have never considered – a burning bomber aircraft threatening their operations and their people, and interrupting their already very important preparations for combat. Were those personnel ready to put down the task at hand, and to meet the challenge that was handed to them on that day? Consider the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Just after 9:30 a.m. EST, an aircraft crashed into the west side of the Pentagon. For the 20,000 people who worked there, an otherwise ordinary work morning suddenly turned fi ery, and they were faced with evacuation, casualties and the threat of further attack. Were those people, whose tasks normally included e-mail, telephone calls and power point, ready to meet the challenge handed to them on that day? The good news is that in both of those situations, people were ready. Although B-1 fi res and aircraft crashes aren’t something our personnel expect to deal with each day, many were ready. They acted heroically to help evacuate and treat others. They served where they could, and acted using their best judgment until SEE READY ON PAGE 3 Commander’s Action Line - The Action Line is your direct link to Brig. Gen. Michael Moeller, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing commander. - Use it if you have questions or comments about the base that couldn’t be resolved by your chain of command or base agencies. - Each question will be reviewed, answered, and may be published on a case-by-case basis. E-mail 379aewactionline@ auab.afcent.af.mil. 2 Aug. 10, 2008
The 379th Air Expeditionary Wing contributed to the following airpower missions from July 31 to Aug. 4. Air refueling missions Air Force, French, Royal Air Force and French aerial refueling crews fl ew 307 sorties and off-loaded approximately 15.4 million pounds of fuel to 1,245 receiving aircraft. Intra-theater airlift missions Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft and C-17 Globemaster IIIs provided intratheater heavy airlift, helping to sustain operations throughout Afghanistan, Iraq FROM READY ON PAGE 2 News Pentagon issues draft request for proposals for new tanker By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department has issued a draft request for proposals to the competitors in the Air Force’s $35 billion program to acquire new aerial refueling tanker aircraft. The request went to Northrop-Grumman and Boeing, and addresses concerns the Government Accountability Offi ce raised about the original award of the contract in February, said Shay Assad, the Defense Department’s director of procurement and acquisitions policy. Mr. Assad spoke during a Pentagon news conference Aug. 6. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, recommended that the Air Force re-bid the contract -- originally won by a Northrop-Grumman/EADS/Airbus consortium in February. Boeing protested the decision, and in June the GAO agreed that there were irregularities in the contracting process. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said DOD would address each of the GAO’s fi ndings “We are doing that, and we are addressing them in a very measured and serious way to ensure that we, in fact, can execute this procurement in a manner that’s fair to both parties and is in the best interests of the warfi ghters and the taxpayers,” Mr. Assad said. Defense offi cials will take a week to discuss elements of the draft with Northrop-Grumman and Boeing. emergency personnel were available in suffi cient force to completely take over control of each of those scenes. They saved lives and mitigated damage, even though they were doing something they had never been trained to do. The actions of people involved in both of the cases above provide us with examples of ordinary people meeting extraordinary situations with courage. What can we learn from them? The common factor among them is they were ready, mentally, to take on an unusual situation. To stop, to think and to get involved until they knew they were no longer needed. To know that even though they had never been specifi cally trained and the Horn of Africa. Approximately 651 airlift sorties were fl own, 2,425 tons of cargo delivered and 14,199 passengers were transported. This included approximately 237,880 pounds of troop re-supply air-dropped in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bomber missions In the vicinity of Now Zad, Afghanistan, Air Force B-1B Lancers dropped a guided bomb unit-31 and 38s onto enemy militants. In the vicinity of Morghab, Afghanistan, an Air Force B-1B Lancer dropped a GBU-38 into a fi eld to deter enemy activities. “Each offeror will be provided an equal amount of time to sit down and discuss face-to-face what their views are of the draft RFP,” Mr. Assad said. By the middle of August, Mr. Assad said, he expects DOD will issue the fi nal request for proposals amendment. Both companies will have 45 days to submit their revisions to their proposals. This takes the process out to Oct. 1, Mr. Assad said. Through late November, DOD offi cials will have discussions -- both oral and written -- with the companies about their proposals. “We would then hope to close discussions around the end of November [or] early December, request a best and fi nal offer -- or what we now term fi nal proposal revisions -- in the fi rst week in December, and complete our evaluations and award right around New Year’s Eve,” Mr. Assad said. The process is on track now and the department needs to fi nish this contract so warfi ghters can get “what they need at a price that the taxpayers can be pleased with,” Mr. Assad said. The Northrop-Grumman contract awarded in February is under a stop-work order. If the department chooses Boeing as part of this process, then DOD will cancel the contract with Northrop- Grumman. If the new process still chooses Northrop-Grumman, then the stop-work order can be lifted and work can proceed, offi cials said. The missions were confirmed successful by on-scene joint terminal attack controllers. ISR missions Sixty-six Air Force and Royal Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft fl ew missions as part of operations in Afghanistan. Additionally, 16 Air Force, Navy and RAF aircraft performed tactical reconnaissance. One hundred twenty-six Air Force and Navy ISR aircraft fl ew missions as part of operations in Iraq. Additionally, eight Air Force, Navy and RAF aircraft performed tactical reconnaissance. to meet the situation at hand, they could contribute. We can each do the same, but making the decision to act begins well before each of us is actually faced with such a dramatic situation. The time to make the decision is now, and it begins with a personal commitment to be as prepared as possible each day to meet our expected duties. By beginning with personal readiness and with the realization that each day might bring the extraordinary, each of us will be most able to meet unusual situations with the courage and calm that they require. Are you ready? People are counting on you. Aug. 10, 2008 3 Desert Eagle
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