April 2011 - 104th Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard

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APRIL 2011AIRSCOOPCommander’s columnBy Col. Robert T. Brooks, Jr.PAGE 2Col. Robert T. Brooks, Jr.104th Fighter WingBarnes Air NationalGuard BaseBarnes Air National Guard Base 175Falcon DriveWestfield, MA 01085Wing CommanderCol. Robert T. Brooks, Jr.Vice Wing CommanderCol. James J. KeefeCommandChief Master SergeantChief Master Sgt. Todd FappianoChief of StaffLt. Col. Mike CousinsWing Executive Staff OfficerMaj. Matthew T. MuttiPublic Affairs OfficerCapt. Mary L. HarringtonManaging EditorSenior Master Sgt. Robert SabonisPhoto and Graphic SupportPublic Affairs - Visual InformationAlcoholism is treatable!Need help? Call 1-800-410-2560I want to take this opportunity tothank everyone for their hard work inpreparation for our upcoming UCI andLCAP, all the while taking care of ourdaily commitments. I know everyone isburning the midnight oil, and I appreciateyour diligence, commitment tothe unit, and to one another. Duringthese times there is a lot of cross flowof information between units, lots ofmeetings, requirements, and simply alot of new “stuff”.Please take notes as we go. If thereare regulations that impede us whiledoing the mission, then we will striveto change it. I have heard Lt. Gen.Wyatt say on more than one occasion,if it does not make sense, we as anANG will do what we can to fix it. Iheard some examples this pastWednesday from a shop chief that definitelysounded extremely cumbersome.The UCI and LCAP are all about compliance,so for the time being, let’smake sure we are in compliance. Whenthe UCI and LCAP are over, we willcompile our “better way to do things”and engage with the appropriate peopleat NGB. If you have suggestions, Irequest you forward the problem, andthe recommended fix, up the chain.With the scarce resources of today, weneed to make sure we are workingsmarter and not harder.On a positive note, I had a talkthree weeks ago with Greg Davis, ourBoeing F-15 Technical Representative.His words to me were that when heleft this base in a month or so, he willleave knowing there is not a more proactiveMaintenance Group anywherein the USAF, and Greg has beenaround quite a bit. He specificallytalked about how our folks have duginto the TO’s and asked questions thathave not been asked in years. Hiswords also spoke to the fact that whileit may be a little slow now with respectto flying, in the long run he felt wewould have the best F-15 fleet in theUSAF and ANG. Chief Wilson alsomentioned to me that Greg has“earned his money”. I want to thankGreg for all he has done for the 104 thBarnestormers for the past few years,you have been a good friend and youare welcome back anytime. While Gregwas speaking specifically about Maintenance,I know every group is beingextremely proactive. The lack of abudget and the Continuing Resolutionhas also made travel extremely cumbersome,I am hopeful Congress willpass a budget before the year ends.2-344556778899101011121213141415161718Table of contentsCommander’s columnChief Master Sgt’s columnContinuing Resolution ActFirst Sgt.’s diamond cornerState Partnership ProgramEagle EyesActive ShooterAirman in FocusWSEP exercise 2011OPSEC and unclassified informationIt’s time to… Get involvedNew government travel cardsCall for helpRetail Sales FAQsSafety How Goes ItATM skimming in local areaService members civil relief actFinancial readiness frontline informationFinancial and tax assistance.What’s my line14th annual fire charity golf tournamentFor Your InformationCCTV line-up / promotions, retirees, religionThis month in historyContinued on next page
APRIL 2011Commander’s Column (cont)Speaking of travel, I know we havefolks engaged at every level to makethings better here on base and for the104th Fighter Wing. I appreciate yourefforts abroad and for fighting the battleson behalf of the 104th, and I wantto update everyone as to some takeawaysfrom some of these trips. Wewere successful in obtaining 62.5 milliondollars for 8 new Active ElectronicScanned Array Radars for our fleet,which will keep the F-15 and the104th relevant for years to come, andwe are advocating for more AESAfunding as well. At the 1st AF Conferencewe got some positive news reconfirmingBarnes as a strategic locationfor ASA. We were able to discussbudgets as it related to snow removaland fight the battle to ensure we remainresourced properly. Our CE(including our state employees), withlimited resources, did an amazing jobthis winter at keeping our base operational,despite the vast amount ofsnow and ice. Our State Employeesare a vital part of our team, and theyhave just completed a difficult transitionto their new state payroll system.I want to thank all of you for your patienceand commitment to this unit.At a recent 9th AF conference, OperationalTempo and Inspection tempowas a hot topic. We were able to weighin with an ANG perspective as most of9th AF is active duty. One take awayfrom that conference was the 9th AFCommander is extremely interested inplacing an active association here atBarnes. We will see where that goes,but an additive active associationwould be a big win for us here(especially relative to our future). Onemember of our leadership team wasable to brief the deputy director ofNGB on the maintenance manningissues relative to potential flying hourcuts (in addition to many other AirDominance issues). Coming out ofwinter, a new runway resurfacing hasrisen to a higher priority, and we havefolks engaged there. We have folks onIG teams, SME’s, MXG/OG CouncilChairs, you name it, folks are engagedon behalf of the 104th and I thank youfor that.AIRSCOOPNext week we will deploy to WSEP toevaluate the entire fighter weaponsystem, from airman to machine toarmament. WSEP will evaluateweapon performance from the time itleaves the munitions storage area,through loading, shooting, fly-out, andtimeout. Also evaluated will be theperformance of aircraft hardware/softwareand finally the aircrew.This will be a good test for us with ourLong Term F-15 fleet, prior to deployingfor any potential combat ops.April is National Sexual AssaultPrevention and Awareness month,and this topic, just as suicide awareness,has received a great deal of publicattention. We here at Barnes havea program in place and people readyto support any issues that may arise.This issue, just as suicide prevention,takes teamwork and a wingman approachto decrease the negative effectson our unit.Last week a few of us had to attenda mandatory briefing down at BradleyAir National Guard Base in the morningwith Lt. Gen. Wyatt, the Directorof the Air National Guard. The themewas return to core values. While99.5% of the ANG force is doing theright thing, there are some folks whoare not. Once that culture sets in aunit, it is hard to stop. Certainly, I donot think we have that problem herein the 104th Fighter Wing, but pleasebe sure you are doing your part anddoing the right thing. Examples duringthe briefing and breakouts wereBAH Fraud, fraudulent TDY pay, airmenshipping contraband from theAOR, excessive incentive awards, improperlogging of comp time, just toname a few. There was an exampleof one unit in which 25% of theunit had committed travel fraud –which speaks to the culture of theunit. Our ANG leadership now hasto spend a lot of their time simplydefending the ANG vice fightingfor resources and future missions.One last message was, just becauseyou can do something, doesnot mean you should do something,something that might createa negative perception for yourPAGE 3unit and the ANG.What is on the horizon? It looks as iffunding will be available for a deploymentto Alaska this summer for a portionof the aviation package. Our ExpeditionaryCombat Support deploymentswill continue as we have manypeople engaged abroad right now. The9th AF Vice Commander said ourspring aviation package Air ExpeditionaryForce deployment is in theplanning stages and we should anticipatean opportunity to deploy. Wehave the Environmental, Occupational,Safety and Health Assessmentcoming up in September, followedquickly by an Alert Force Evaluationfrom NORAD IG, and a 9th AF Standardizationand Evaluation visit. ThePhase 1 Operational Readiness Inspectionis projected for approximatelySept. 2013.Last, but not least – congrats arein order for our nine graduates fromNCOA Class 11-3; Sgt’s Brown,Cekovsky, and Christofori from theSecurity Force Squadron, Sgt’s Leonard,MacDonald, Pavelchak andWeeks from Maintenance and Sgt’sCrane and Savard from the Civil EngineerSquadron. It sounds like the104th was running the place as wehad four flight leaders, two distinguishedgraduates (TSgt. Ron Brownand TSgt. Tom MacDonald) a finalistsfor the Paul H. Lankford ExcellenceAward (TSgt. Ron Brown).Keep up the great work, be a goodwingman up, down, and across yourchain of command, and thanks to allof you for being great Americans. Iam proud to serve with you.- Col Brooks
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April 2011 - 104th Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard

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