Wing ORE indicates Airmen are prepared for January inspection

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Carolyn Viss
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  In spite of freezing weather with wind chill temperatures in the single digits, 7th Bomb Wing Airmen produced six on-time sorties and processed Airmen through the personnel deployment function line during an Operational Readiness Exercise here Dec. 14 and 15, with results no inspector could argue with. 

"All the chalks were on time, and there were no late departures," said Capt. Glen Langdon, the installation deployment officer. 

No discrepancies were identified for cargo or personnel, he said, and the aircraft loading exercise was a strong point of the two-day event. 

"Dyess is primed and ready for the January inspection," Captain Langdon said. "The areas the inspector general put in as recommended areas for improvement have allowed us to further refine our checklists and processes to the point of outstanding performance." 

"We made some mistakes in the October Operational Readiness Inspection, but making mistakes is part of being human," said Donna Brown, 7th Operations Group readiness flight chief. "What's more important is being able to take feedback and make positive corrections." 

The actual processing has been streamlined, she said. The pre-deployment briefings were much better, and they were able to standardize the content for mobility folders so that each unit knew exactly what had to be in each person's folder. 

"Everyone rolled up their sleeves and got into the process," Mrs. Brown said. "As a result, there were no personnel readiness folder errors that couldn't be corrected and easily. We should have an almost perfect ORI based on what we saw in the ORE." 

Although the wing is currently focusing on attention to detail to prepare for the Air Combat Command IG team, Mrs. Brown pointed out that personal readiness is an ongoing process, something each individual is responsible for in order to be ready to deploy at all times. 

"A well-rounded Airman is mentally and physically prepared at all times," Mrs. Brown said. "We often think about deployments [in terms of] training that needs to be accomplished, but there's a whole other list of things that Airmen have to think about, too. Members must have individual responsibility over their finances, their family care plans, and personal possessions so they know what they're leaving behind and how it will be taken care of in their absence." 

Individual accountability is the bottom line, and this ORE showed that the wing is ready to "knock the ORI out of the park," Mrs. Brown said. 

"We've had support from the top down. Now, we've now got members coming to us to find out what they need to be deployment-ready, instead of us coming to them," she said. "Instead of just accomplishing a checklist, we have Airmen who are ready in every aspect of their lives." 

"The October ORI showed us that we had some areas that we needed to work on," said Col. Gavin Ketchen, 7th BW vice commander. "Now that we have our house in order, it's time to recover with friends and family over the holidays before the big game in January."