COMMENTARY>>Help me spend our $50,000

By Col. Greg Otey
19th Airlift Wing commander

On Tuesday, Gen. Arthur Lichte, commander of Air Mobility Command, announced the results of the AMC Commander-in-Chief’s Annual Award for Installation Excellence. Little Rock Air Force Base placed second in what the general called an “extremely competitive” competition.

No. 2 in AMC is awesome; that’s No. 2 out of 15 bases. I spoke with members of the team and they relayed how impressed they were with Team Little Rock during their visit. Dover Air Force Base, Del., was named the overall winner, and they deserve to be congratulated. Members of the Installation Excellence Award evaluation team said Dover AFB won with mature processes that showed their installation excellence - their mature processes incorporated a lot AFSO21 into their way of life.

I want to thank each of you for your great work. As I have said in the past, you all make me proud to be part of such a great team. To echo Gen. Lichte, I’m proud of the energy displayed, the pride we show in our mission, our productivity and the work we perform daily to improve the quality of life here. None of this could have been done without massive amounts of teamwork - from each of our three wings and our community supporters.

You could not have done better in your presentations to the evaulation team. Team Little Rock truly “Rocked.” Second place and $50,000 is something we can all be proud of.

Now, how should we spend our money?

You won this award; this money is for us to improve Team Little Rock. You should help decide how the money should be spent. I am soliciting suggestions from all Team Little Rock members on how we can improve our quality of life while rewarding our entire team for their hard work and dedication. $50,000 won’t take care of every need on base - for comparison, the push-up pad at the War Fit Track cost roughly $200,000 - but it can take care of some needs.

Therefore, I’m looking for your ideas. Please send your suggestions to me directly, through my action line, at actionline@littlerock.af.mil. I am open to ideas that will benefit us all.

Please send your suggestions to me no later than Friday, Oct. 30. We will announce the decision in a future edition of the Combat Airlifter.

Again, thank you all for the hard work and great attitude throughout our preparation and execution during AMC’s selection process.

A special thanks to the world’s greatest military community and our Team Little Rock Community Council.
Combat Airlift!