Two Spangdahlem teams take AF level awards

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Clay Murray
  • 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany --  Nine members from Spangdahlem Air Base teams took trophies home from Washington Sept. 14. They were selected as winners of the Chief of Staff Team Excellence Award for finding creative ways to enhance mission capabilities, improve operational performance and create sustained results, according to www.af.mil.

Out of 21 final teams, a total of five were selected as winners; the catch is that Spangdahlem's nine Airmen came from not one, but two separate teams.

The 52nd Fighter Wing Safety Office and an Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century C-17 Globemaster III refueling team from the 726th Air Mobility Squadron held the winning cards during the award ceremony, and received their awards in Washington along with the other three.

"Having two CSTEA winners from the same base is a pretty rare occurrence, and I can tell you that I couldn't be prouder of the teamwork that goes into everything that happens on this base -- whether it's here at the 52nd or with our Air Mobility Command brethren on the other side of the ramp," said Col. Christopher Weggeman, 52nd Fighter Wing commander. "We are all a part of the same team fighting the same fight, and this recognition from the Chief shows that we've got it right."

Team members from the 726th AMS were selected for their contribution to the refueling world of the C-17. Four active-duty Airmen and an Air Force civilian worked together to streamline the routine aircraft job by rewriting the technical orders, in turn saving the Air Force $8.4 million and cutting operation time by 50 percent.

"We looked at the process that was painfully bad. To put it in a nutshell, imagine that when you go out to your car, you run around it five times and then get in. That's what our technical order was telling us to do," said Master Sgt. James Pierce, 726th AMS lead production superintendent and C-17 refueling team leader. "It caused people to not want to follow the book because it was chaotic. The technical order we follow for refueling was breeding that because people knew we could do it better even though you're supposed to follow the book. We found all the problems, streamlined them to make sense, cut out half the motion that wasn't required and all that cut down a lot of the time."

The entire process began as an AFSO 21 initiative and changed, turning into a much larger project, Sergeant Pierce said.

"That's with all AFSO 21 events, sometimes you don't know where they're going to go," he said. "We thought we had a problem with the way we were doing things. Maybe our guys had problems, maybe we weren't training right or whatever. Through research, we found the root cause, and it was the book - that affected everyone in the Air Force.

"Not only did we help the Air Force, but we helped out all the nations who own the C-17. There are other countries purchasing them, for example the United Arab Emirates and India," Sergeant Pierce said. "We helped them also because they have contracted support through the Air Force when they purchase the aircraft."

The 52nd Fighter Wing safety team competed against the 20 other nominated teams, including records management, flight processes, humanitarian relief and many others. The safety team submitted the award nomination on paper and briefed an official board about the process intricacies, explained Master Sgt. Joseph Winfield, ground safety manager.

Once they saw the finalists, he knew that they were up against some serious competitors.

"I'm looking over this book of nominees - 75 of them cut down to 21 - thinking of the top who were presented to Air Force leadership," Sergeant Winfield said. "It made me personally feel like the efforts were totally worth it. A rather small Air Force base like ours can make a difference Air Force-wide by just doing our job."

The combat safety improvement team encouraged safety throughout the base not only with rules and implementations, but also with guidelines and principles for the four main areas - ground, flight and weapons safety and human factors.

"When our names were called, it wasn't just us as a safety team anymore, but as a wing and a base," said Master Sgt. Richard Valdez, wing safety superintendent. "We've made a difference - in the past you've heard, 'Here comes safety, watch your back.' I don't think we give people that perspective of safety. We don't see that type of attitude anymore. Now it's more along the lines of, 'Here comes help.' Just knowing that we've changed that attitude has allowed us to win this trophy. I don't think it's just this team alone, but the wing itself."

The 52nd Fighter Wing Combat Safety Team and the 726th Air Mobility Squadron's C-17 Globemaster III refueling AFSO 21 team were two of the five winners. The Haiti Flight Operations Coordination Center Team at Travis AFB, Calif.; Charter School Working Group Team at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.; and the Periodic Inspection Smart Operations Team at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, were also Chief of Staff Team Excellence Award winners.