Team Aviano IG explains new inspection system, changes

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jessica Hines
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  The 31st Fighter Wing will enter its second wing inspection for 2014 as part of the new commander inspection program, May 17.

As director of the program, Lt. Col. Doug Thies, 31 FW inspector general, took some time to help explain changes to the new inspection system as well as shed some light on what Airmen can expect in the coming year.

"The Air Force changed the inspection system a couple years ago mostly in response to budget constraints as well as feedback from commanders," said Thies. "It basically levees the responsibilities for inspections on the wing itself."

In years past, formal inspections were conducted by major commands through a group of inspectors and augmentees brought in from outside bases. Referred to as operational readiness inspections or unit compliance inspections, these visits would require a substantial amount of time and money to bring in personnel on temporary duty assignment.

"So the philosophy came from within the ranks that we should inspect our own mission while we are actually doing the mission," he said. "This is where the commander's inspection program comes in."

Established from changes made to Air Force Instruction 90-201, The Air Force Inspection System, inspections are now designed to enable commanders to find and fix programs locally with reduced reliance on external inspections and instead rely on subject matter experts within the wing.

"So we evaluate ourselves, we write reports, we identify deficiencies and any recommended improvement areas," said Thies. "Now the [major command] evaluates the quality, validity and integrity of our own inspection system. The footprint is much smaller.

"They also rely on virtual means to check up on us routinely, instead of having this big event that wings would spend months preparing for," he added.

Thies noted that while there are no more ORIs or UCIs, wings will still receive major command visits during capstone events to evaluate the IG teams' processes, but with a much fewer personnel than before.

"They will still come in and look at what think they need to, based on their virtual observations, and other visits throughout the year," said Thies.

In order to operate the new system, Thies relies on a robust inspection team of 10 core IG members and approximately 190 other wing inspection team members from within units across the base.

"These are your [technical] sergeants and master sergeants and higher who are the subject matter experts in their functional areas," he said. "They wouldn't be given the charge of inspecting the wing if they weren't good at what they do."

Within each quarterly inspection the base plans to run, the IG will test and examine basic Airmen core competencies such as self-aid buddy care, accountability, Eagle Eye reports, identifying suspicious behavior and deploying at a moment's notice.

"There are some basic core Airman skills that have to be exercised. One of those things is doing your job in an adverse environment where it's not fun, such as working in [mission oriented protective posture] gear," he said.

As a test base, Aviano was one of the first bases within Europe and the Air Force to implement the new system.

"One of the things that we do now is go into a unit and inspect their programs based on four major graded areas: Executing the mission, managing resources, improving the unit and leading people.

"That is something we were not doing as of last year and we do that in a combination of ways. We have a template of things we look at and we also send out anonymous surveys to Airmen so they can tell us what they think about those particular areas," said Thies.

The surveys will provide Airmen a more direct link to voice their ideas and concerns on the unit's mission and processes. According to Thies, this is one aspect of the unit inspections Airmen should really take advantage of.

"That is biggest role for Airmen. They have to be a sensor and identify problems to the leadership and be ready to help to fix the problem," he said. "Those surveys get read by me and that command chain. So, we really need Airmen to identify issues and speak to them boldly and loudly when they see them."

In his short nine months as the IG, Thies will soon pass on the reigns to a new inspector this summer who will continue building Team Aviano inspection system, depending on internal experts to evaluate and strengthen the wings readiness.

"This job is challenging, but, the greatest part is seeing how everything comes together," he said. "You get to see how critical everyone's contributions are to the mission. It's a huge machine in place to make it happen and every single Airman has a part in that."

More information on the Air Force inspection system can be found in AFI 90-201 on the Air Force e-Publishing website.