OSS earns high praise during inspection

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Daryl Knee
  • 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany --  Two flights within the 52nd Operations Support Squadron here underwent thorough program inspections Oct. 24-28, and both earned praise for their section's policy and procedure adherence.

The 52nd OSS Weather Flight earned an "Excellent" rating during the Standardization and Evaluation Program for Weather Operations inspection. The 52nd OSS Airfield Operations Flight earned an "Outstanding" rating during the Air Traffic System Evaluation Program inspection.

The inspections occur once every two years, and the ratings are based on a five-tier system: unsatisfactory, marginal, satisfactory, excellent and outstanding.

The SEPWO inspection evaluates all weather operations, which is broken into three sections -- staff, airfield services and mission weather. Each section has its own process and specific responsibility in regards to the 52nd Fighter Wing mission.

"We're providing the wing everything we're required to, and then some," said Capt. Derek Gosney, 52nd OSS Weather Flight commander, of his trained weather Airmen. "We're going to sustain our excellent readiness to give the wing stellar air support."

To prepare for the inspection, the weather-flight lead identified targets for improvement, said Master Sgt. Robert Fournier, 52nd OSS Weather Flight flight chief. The targets included an enhanced training program and improved understanding of the flying mission. The weather Airmen can better tailor forecasts if they work together with the pilots.

"We have one of the best teams in the Air Force," Fournier said. "The teamwork here is phenomenal, and the inspectors really keyed in on that."

The Eifel region has some of the most difficult weather to forecast within U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Gosney said. With the conclusion of this inspection, all of the flight's hard work has been validated.

"The ratings are indicative of the type of job these folks do day in and day out," said Lt. Col. Steven Horton, 52nd OSS commander. "Our people are on top of it; they know their job well, and they perform exceptionally."

All operations support squadron flights are different, Horton continued. However, any time a jet takes off, Spangdahlem Airmen can count on every single flight within the squadron doing their part to get the aircraft off the ground.

The 52nd OSS Airfield Operations Flight is broken into two sections -- air traffic and airfield management, said 1st Lt. Tommy Ackerman, 52nd OSS Airfield Operations acting commander during the ATSEP inspection. The 49 assigned Airmen help the flying mission by managing flightline airspace and guarantying a maintained runway.

The inspectors evaluate the Airmen on their provided service, how safe they do their job, and the relationship among the air-traffic control tower and the fighter squadrons. The ATSEP "Outstanding" rating was the first earned in the past five years for USAFE bases, and the inspectors also recognized five Saber Airmen as outstanding performers.

"Even though the leadership has known for some time that we have great Airmen, I'm glad that the team was able to show everybody," Ackerman said. "We viewed it not as an inspection, but as a stage to show off how outstanding our Airmen truly are."

The overall message for these two inspection ratings is that the operations-support Airmen are all doing their part, Gosney said, and they're doing it well.

"We put the 'support' in operations support squadron," he said with a laugh.