TOP STORY >>463rd Group establishes AFSO-21 office

Courtesy 463rd Airlift Group

Members of one Little Rock unit recently asked themselves three big questions: how to break down the gates of complacency; how to teach people to think outside the box at work; and how to become more innovative with the resources they have.

The answer? Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century. The 463rd Airlift Group followed the lead of the Secretary of the Air Force and established an office dedicated to producing solutions for today’s resource-restrained Department of Defense.

The 463 AG’s AFSO-21 office was formed under the vision that the “Air Force cannot afford to continue to do things ‘because that’s the way we’ve always done it’,” said Capt. Efrain Caldera, 463 AG AFSO-21 chief. “We must do things because it’s the best way to do them now.”

Capt. Caldera noted mission workloads are constantly increasing and units are seeing demands on their capabilities growing, but resources remain limited. “In order to find solutions to these evolving dilemmas, the Air Force unveiled the AFSO-21 program.”

During a recent meeting, the AFSO-21 executive council, group leaders, squadron commanders and Col. Jeff Hoffer, 463 AG commander, identified annual improvement priorities and ways to initiate plans.

“The challenges the 463rd Air Group are facing dictate that we do things smarter, faster and more efficiently,” said Col. Hoffer. “AFSO-21 will improve daily operations, help our group successfully grow into a wing, reduce the impact of PBD 720 cuts and enable us to meet our requirements for fighting the Global War on Terrorism.”

Leaders within the group are utilizing the program to help layout a transitional plan for Air Mobility Command’s future on Little Rock Air Force Base. They said they are focusing on topics such as flightline realignment, flight scheduling, performance report processing and ground delivery activities aircraft availability.

“In the past, these processes were examined once and set aside without further scrutiny, until another problem arose,” said Capt. Caldera. “Historically, we’ve relied on being reactive instead of proactive. Unfortunately, our mission evolved with each new conflict and with it, the way we fly and fight.”

He went on to say that it’s impossible to predict the future but possible to ensure his unit is better prepared to deal with issues in an efficient and effective manner.

“Honestly, teamwork is the key to making this initiative a success,” Capt. Caldera said. “No one person can make this happen. There has been a tremendous amount of work by everyone involved.”

“The leadership of the 463rd strongly stands behind educating and empowering every Airman with the ability to effect change rather the being affected by it,” Col. Hoffer concluded.