Commentary: Preparing for October

  • Published
  • By Brig. Gen. Eric S. Overturf
  • 442nd Fighter Wing commander
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  Summer is only halfway over, but 442nd Fighter Wing warriors have already completed several great annual training deployments. We sunk boats in Hawaii, dropped live bombs in Alaska, honed support skills in England and applied medical expertise in Honduras. Thanks for all your hard work on these trips. I got a lot of positive reports from deployed base leadership about the performance of our reservists.

Many of you also did your annual training at home station to accomplish crucial tasks like preparing for our upcoming Consolidated Unit Inspection (CUI) at Whiteman. Thanks to your hard work, we are well on our way to a successful inspection, but there's still a lot of work to do in the next two months before the inspectors arrive.

I asked Maj. Cathy Roberts, our wing's CUI project officer, to put together a top 10 list to help us prepare. Although the following list specifically addresses the compliance inspection, the same process applies to the other CUI events - like the *LCAP, HSI, ASEV and Safety PE (that may set a new record for acronyms in one Mohawk line!)

10. Complete any unfinished self-inspection checklists.

9. Review the staff assistance visit results. Assess your deficiencies and talk to your counterparts in other units who have been recently inspected. Use that information to ask others for help, whether another office in the unit, or your equivalent at another unit.

8. Prioritize Tier 1 (mission-critical impact) deficiencies and "fix/improve" programs as required; then work on Tier 2, and finally, Tier 3.

7. Review the most recent 442nd FW inspection report (2007 for the then-called Unit Compliance Inspection) to review the potential write-ups your office could be susceptible to, and to make sure you've corrected any previously reported deficiencies.

6. Continue (or begin) to load Virtually Inspectable Items into your checklists. Management Internal Control Toolset (MICT) now flags items that are Virtually Inspectable. If you are unsure what you should load for a particular checklist question, contact your FAM or a counterpart at another unit.

5. Talk to your counterparts at recently inspected units. Find out what they did well and what they would do differently.

4. Program managers - meet with your process owners in the units, like Maxwell AFB, Ala., Patrick AFB and Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla. Standardize binders and review program requirements. Process owners - share your strong programs with others. Benchmarking is great!

3. Not later than Oct. 1, inform your commander of deficiencies in your areas. I know all of our programs aren't perfect, but the important thing is to acknowledge the deficiencies and make sure we have corrective action plans loaded in MICT. There should be no surprises during the out brief.

2. On Oct. 11, put on your game face and enter inspection mode- the inspectors will arrive that day, and positive first impressions will go a long way toward a successful inspection.

1. Oct. 11-16, seek out your inspectors and show them what you've got! Be honest and enthusiastic about your job and your unit. You have a lot to be proud of!

To summarize, here's what we need to focus on at Whiteman over the next couple months:

August - Focus on the Tier 1 deficiencies in your checklists. Program managers should meet with their process owners to take an honest, hard look at how you do what you do. This inspection is about the process. It's about following rules. How well do you follow the guidelines laid out for you in each program?

September - Focus on Tier 2 - and then Tier 3 - deficiencies. Implement recommendations from meetings with program managers, counterparts and staff assistance visits. Heavy emphasis should be placed on ensuring MICT paints the accurate picture of your compliance.

October - Educate your leadership. I realize you can't fix a lot in the last 10 days, but you can document the things that still need work, notify your leadership and have the corrective plan in MICT and ready to show the inspector. We don't have to be perfect - we just have to identify our discrepancies and write corrective plans to show that our self-assessment program is strong.

We're down to the final stretch, so now is the time to push up the throttles to make sure we're ready when the inspectors show up in October. This wing has an amazing record of combat mission success- now we can show that we know how to run the programs that make it possible for us to support that mission and take care of the people who
make it happen - you!

It's an honor to be your commander. Thank you for the many hours I know each of you are spending to get the job done.

*LCAP - Logistics compliance assessment program
HSI - Health services inspection
ASEV - Aircrew standardization/evaluation visit (also known as APE)
Safety PE - Safety Program Evaluation