TOP STORY>>19th AW breaks ground with new inspection plan

By Staff Sgt. Jake Barreiro
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

The 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base the first base in Air Mobility Command to be inspected under a new Unit Effectiveness Inspection Sept. 20 – 27, earned an overall rating of Effective for the wing.

The inspection was part of a new Air Force Inspection System, which redefined the wing portion of the Commander’s Inspection Program and included major changes from inspections of the past.

“This inspection contains some of the biggest, most significant changes for the Air Force in the last 50 years,” said Lt. Col. Jon Steckbeck, 19th AW inspector general.

Some of the changes under the new inspection, detailed in Air Force Instruction 90-201, include a focus on continuous mission readiness, as opposed to vamping up and down for massive inspections.

“Under this new guidance there won’t be anymore ‘deep dive inspections,’ by higher headquarters” said Steckbeck. “The focus is on being mission-ready all the time, honestly documenting discrepancies and effectively taking care of them.”

The new UEI runs on a two-year cycle, during which wing and unit commanders, as well as other personnel, are responsible for inspecting their own programs and noting discrepancies in the Management Internal Control Toolset. During the last 120-day period of the cycle, the Major Commands look closely at the self-inspections presented to them by each wing through MICT and decide what they’ll scrutinize during the last week of the inspections, known as the UEI capstone.

“With MICT, we show the MAJCOM we’re compliant all the time,” said Steckbeck, who works with the base Commander’s Inspection Program team to ensure units are correctly and honestly documenting their compliances/non-compliances in MICT. “When they come here during the UEI capstone, they’re asking us to prove it.”

Throughout the UEI capstone, Sept. 22 – Sept. 29, nearly 130 inspectors from AMC came to base to take a close look at the programs of the 19th AW, validating and verifying that they are effective and in compliance with Air Force standards.

Steckbeck said the most important part of correctly executing this inspection is being honest.

“It’s okay to have deficiencies, as long as you honestly identify them and lay out a corrective action plan, keep monitoring the deficiency and document the corrective actions,” said Steckbeck. “The whole point is to perform these self-inspections honestly, that way you’ll know what you need to do to improve.”

There are four major graded areas for the inspection: Managing Resources, Leading People, Improving the Unit and Executing the Mission. The wing was graded on a five-tier scale: Outstanding, Highly Effective, Effective, Marginally Effective and Ineffective.

The 19th AW, the first wing in the continental United States to be tested under the new system, earned an Effective in every major graded area, except for Executing the Mission, for which the wing earned a grade of Highly Effective.

In addition to the inspection, the AMC IG also conducted “Airmen to IG sessions,” during the week, in which they interview Airmen and civilians of specific peer groups to see if there are any trends concerning the quality of life and work on base.

The top three issues ascertained by the AMC IG from the Airmen to IG sessions were access to medical care, education and communicating force structure changes.

The AMC IG also recognized multiple top performers from the base, including giving out nine IG coins, four certificates of recognition and six team accolades. (Going to try and find out who/what won)

The recipients of the IG coins were: Majors Ryan Kiernan, 19th Operations Group, Rebekah Montgomery, 19th OG and Dennis Slowinski, 50th Airlift Squadron, 2nd Lt. Amanda Watts, 19th Force Support Squadron, Senior Master Sgt. Eric Lorow, 19th Logistics Readiness Squadron, Master Sgt. Sherry Williams, 19th Component Maintenance Squadron, Tech. Sgt. Thomas Grover, 41st Airlift Squadron, Senior Airman David Nearbin, 19th FSS and Jacqueline Schneider, 19th Communications Squadron.

The recipients of the certificates of recognition were: Tech. Sgts. Thomas Brown, 19th Operations Support Squadron and Shawn Olson, 41st AS, Staff Sgt. Danielle Drahman, 19th LRS and Senior Airman Eric Severic, 41st AS.

The teams recognized for their outstanding performance were: the Chapel Team, the Intelligence Flight Team, the Weapons and Tactics Team, the Wing Inspector General Inspections Team and the Wing Safety Team.

Successfully accomplishing the UEI was a team effort and put the wing on track to meet the Air Force standard of compliance with the new Air Force Inspection System, said Steckbeck. The entire Air Force is expected to utilize the new inspection system by Oct. 1, 2014.

“We came together as a team to be successful for this inspection,” said Steckbeck. “Our success is a reflection of the relentless efforts of the 19th AW IGI and the proactive efforts of the commanders and the men and women of the 19th AW.”