317th AG Airmen continue to lead the way

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jonathan Stefanko
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Due to a culture of innovation within the 317th Airlift Group, three Airmen implemented two ideas, finding ways to save the Air Force money and ensure units stay mission ready.

Tech. Sgt. Timothy Ladd, Tech. Sgt. Bradley Stewart and Staff Sgt. Roger Richardson, 317th Maintenance Operations Squadron, started an engine run course in-house, which was originally held at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., making it more accessible to complete training.

"After completing the engine run course at Keesler, I realized we could teach the engine run certification course safely on the aircraft here instead of constantly sending our personnel TDY," Ladd said. "I pitched the idea through the proper channels and acquired the necessary courseware needed to instruct [the course] and everything got approved. It really took no time at all."

Thanks to the efforts of Ladd, Stewart and Richardson, the Air Force saves 1,500 man-hours and approximately $45,000 annually, an accomplishment other units are noticing.

"We are able to offer other units, including Guard or Reservists, seats to attend our course. Offering the course at Dyess creates an additional option in case Keesler is unavailable," Ladd said. "We are also willing to give units a copy of our courseware if they have the means to instruct the course in-house as well."

Because of an upcoming deployment and drop in priority, the 317th AG's backlog for training was beginning to build up quickly.

"When we transitioned to the C-130J we were given a training priority for the required classes, but events occurred that were out of our control and our priority was lost," said Maj. Christopher Fontana, 317th MOS commander. "Also, we still needed to maintain our current deployment operations while preparing for the next deployment. This loss of training priority and continuous deployments contributed to the training backlog.

"Being unable to send our guys to the required classes made our backlog of personnel awaiting training grow to 185 personnel as of August, creating an almost unmanageable state," added Fontana. "Ladd, Stewart and Richardson identified the problem and took the initiative to fix it. Our personnel backlog numbers are much more manageable now."

After hours of number crunching and communication with Air Education and Training Command, the 317th AG obtained additional formal training allocations and dropped their backlog numbers by almost 50 percent.

"After I received the numbers for our backlog I was able to paint a picture for AETC and Air Mobility Command, and stress the need for getting our training done," Richardson said. "We were able to drop down 46 percent and we're expected to drop down to only 21 personnel awaiting training as of April 1, 2013."

It is because of the 317th AG's practice of innovation that new ideas are constantly being used to improve the Air Force as a whole.

"The length of our C-130J transition led to problems in gaining formal training allocations for our maintainers," said Col. Walter Ward, 317th AG commander. "But the 317th MOS team took it upon themselves to find a way when others would have simply punted the problem to headquarters. Because of their initiative, we were able to deploy last September without short falling requirements to other units without any negative impact to unit tempo or personal lives. I am truly proud of the efforts of these Airmen."