by Gina Randall, 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England -- An inspection is an opportunity to validate compliance and mission readiness. It's a time to prove an installation's preparedness, professionalism, and highlight its integrity. It's also a time for personnel to interact with the installation's inspection team. At RAF Mildenhall, members of the 100th Air Refueling Wing Inspections and Readiness (IGI) office lead the base's inspection team.
Team Mildenhall, as a whole, will be inspected many times over the course of a year. Individual units will prove their readiness as inspectors assess critical areas. Then the inspection team will consolidate its findings into a report for the base commander.
"The Inspections and Readiness team has empowered several subject matter experts with the responsibility of crafting exercise design injections and developing key scenarios," said Staff Sgt. David Rodriguez, 100th ARW IGI inspection director from Los Angeles, Calif. "The IGI team will later assign inspectors to assess the installation's response to the injections created by these select experts."
"Our team has had to develop relationships with subject matter experts across the base, and bring them together in order to intelligently design exercises to meet the objectives approved by the wing commander," added Maj. Jeremy Patrick, 100th ARW IGI director of inspections from Marion, Ill.
The Wing Inspection Team will study the scenarios and anticipated reactions so they are prepared to assess performance. Additionally, the WIT members will form together prior to an exercise for a workshop which will remind them of the necessity of the inspection and prepare them to perform a completely honest and unbiased inspection. The workshop will include topics such as how to observe without interfering, how and when to intervene, if necessary, to prevent unintended consequences or safety issues, how to take effective notes of their observations and how to transform those notes into useful inputs during the processing of the written inspection.
"On a large scale, the goal is to verify the ability to practice and improve RAF Mildenhall's capability to deploy and employ 100th ARW units and personnel," Patrick said. "Within this broad umbrella, the wing commander, with inputs from his staff and the group commanders, has laid out several specific objectives to be evaluated during an inspection."
A positive result from an inspection would validate Team Mildenhall's ability to employ and deploy assets in support of designed operational capability statement requirements and other directed missions.
"Of course, if my team is doing the job right, even after a successful outcome on an exercise or inspection, there will be valuable lessons learned, and these lessons will be incorporated in to ensure even better performance in the future," Patrick said.
A negative inspection result would indicate flaws in the 100th ARW's ability to perform necessary missions. In the worst case, the wing commander may have to stand-down certain units until the deficiencies are corrected.
Other less-drastic negative results may lead to a redesign of programs, identification of equipment that needs to be sourced or training opportunities. The possibilities are nearly endless and would depend on the problems uncovered.
"It's not so much about passing or failing, as it is taking an objective look to see how Team Mildenhall is doing and where there are opportunities to improve capabilities through improved training, guidance, equipment, efficiencies or synergies," Rodriguez said.
Ultimately, these inspections are a key part of the Commander's Inspection Program. It allows the wing command team to gauge whether the wing is aligned correctly to support its missions.
"Another key element of these inspections is the ability to practice our craft and work with our partners here at RAF Mildenhall to improve our ability to meet our unique and challenging mission sets," Patrick said.
Showing posts with label RAF Mildenhall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RAF Mildenhall. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Partnership makes for expanded air refueling capabilities
by Senior Airman Tabitha M. Lee, 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England (AFNS) -- A 100th Air Refueling Wing KC-135 Stratotanker crew participated in air refueling training here with a C-17 Globemaster III crew from the Heavy Airlift Wing at Papa Air Base, Hungary, Nov. 12.
Although no fuel was exchanged during the mission, both units received training they don't get the opportunity to do on a regular basis.
According to Col. Chad Manske, the 100th ARW commander and the aircraft commander for the mission, refueling heavy aircraft is not an easy requirement for boom operators to accomplish in Europe. Members of the 100th ARW typically refuel smaller, fighter-type aircraft, which are more maneuverable behind the tanker. Large receiver aircraft present a separate set of challenges to both the boom operators and the front end KC-135 crewmembers during the air refueling, due to the size of both aircraft flying in close vertical proximity to one another.
"This mutually beneficial arrangement comes down to the HAW's requirement for its pilots to accomplish air refueling receiver training and for our air refueling boom operator technicians to accomplish refueling of a large receiver aircraft like the HAW C-17," Colonel Manske said.
If refueling training for HAW pilots wasn't available in Europe, they would be required to travel to the U.S. to receive the training, which is less time and cost efficient. By keeping their pilots qualified, the HAW is ready to respond to whatever mission comes their way.
The HAW is home to three C-17 Globemaster IIIs that belong to the Strategic Airlift Capability, which is an understanding between 10 NATO countries and two Partnership for Peace nations. Those aircraft are employed to meet national needs, but can also be allocated for NATO, United Nations or European Union missions. They can also be used for international purposes such as humanitarian airlift and disaster relief, as agreed by the nations.
"When the Strategic Airlift Capability joined in a partnership to purchase, support and operate our three C-17s, the 12 nations were committed to training to the same standard as the United States Air Force and to maintaining the skills necessary to employ all aspects of C-17 capabilities," said Col. John Zazworsky, the Heavy Airlift Wing commander.
Partnership building between the 100th ARW and the HAW was another outcome of the mission.
"Expanding our mission capabilities is a side benefit to the partner capacity building and readiness aspects of this new relationship," Colonel Manske said. "By training together and forging this new relationship, we are building trust that may be put to the test in future conflicts where the HAW aircraft and our own are on the same side."
That relationship will continue to grow and allow both wings to achieve their goals and conquer any challenges that may come to pass.
"Like the HAW demonstrated last January in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, we are capable of responding quickly in crisis," Colonel Zazworsky said. "Maintaining our air refueling capability provides the maximum operational flexibility to our nations, no matter what challenge lies ahead."
RAF MILDENHALL, England (AFNS) -- A 100th Air Refueling Wing KC-135 Stratotanker crew participated in air refueling training here with a C-17 Globemaster III crew from the Heavy Airlift Wing at Papa Air Base, Hungary, Nov. 12.
Although no fuel was exchanged during the mission, both units received training they don't get the opportunity to do on a regular basis.
According to Col. Chad Manske, the 100th ARW commander and the aircraft commander for the mission, refueling heavy aircraft is not an easy requirement for boom operators to accomplish in Europe. Members of the 100th ARW typically refuel smaller, fighter-type aircraft, which are more maneuverable behind the tanker. Large receiver aircraft present a separate set of challenges to both the boom operators and the front end KC-135 crewmembers during the air refueling, due to the size of both aircraft flying in close vertical proximity to one another.
"This mutually beneficial arrangement comes down to the HAW's requirement for its pilots to accomplish air refueling receiver training and for our air refueling boom operator technicians to accomplish refueling of a large receiver aircraft like the HAW C-17," Colonel Manske said.
If refueling training for HAW pilots wasn't available in Europe, they would be required to travel to the U.S. to receive the training, which is less time and cost efficient. By keeping their pilots qualified, the HAW is ready to respond to whatever mission comes their way.
The HAW is home to three C-17 Globemaster IIIs that belong to the Strategic Airlift Capability, which is an understanding between 10 NATO countries and two Partnership for Peace nations. Those aircraft are employed to meet national needs, but can also be allocated for NATO, United Nations or European Union missions. They can also be used for international purposes such as humanitarian airlift and disaster relief, as agreed by the nations.
"When the Strategic Airlift Capability joined in a partnership to purchase, support and operate our three C-17s, the 12 nations were committed to training to the same standard as the United States Air Force and to maintaining the skills necessary to employ all aspects of C-17 capabilities," said Col. John Zazworsky, the Heavy Airlift Wing commander.
Partnership building between the 100th ARW and the HAW was another outcome of the mission.
"Expanding our mission capabilities is a side benefit to the partner capacity building and readiness aspects of this new relationship," Colonel Manske said. "By training together and forging this new relationship, we are building trust that may be put to the test in future conflicts where the HAW aircraft and our own are on the same side."
That relationship will continue to grow and allow both wings to achieve their goals and conquer any challenges that may come to pass.
"Like the HAW demonstrated last January in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, we are capable of responding quickly in crisis," Colonel Zazworsky said. "Maintaining our air refueling capability provides the maximum operational flexibility to our nations, no matter what challenge lies ahead."
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