Keeping 442nd Fighter Wing's financial fortunes flying

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tom Talbert
  • 442nd Fighter Wing public affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  Benjamin Franklin put it best when he said, "If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall".

Everyone faces this economic reality on a monthly basis in their homes and businesses. For some, this might account for why members entered the Air Force Reserve in the first place. But if managing the books creates a stress in an individual's life, imagine what it must be like to work in the Financial Management office for the 442nd Fighter Wing.

The staff of six's daily tasks include overseeing a colossal-sized budget that this year should exceed $60 million.

"I love what I do, but when I get home the last thing I or any of my staff want to do is pay our own bills," said Mr. Tim Storms, the wing's chief financial manager.

This crowded office disperses expenditures for more than 1,200 traditional reservists, more than 260 civilians and 100 Individual Mobilization Augmentees.

Taking into account between 10 to 12 pay transactions for every individual on active-duty orders, the monumental numbers of monthly paychecks that are issued to traditional reservists and the departmental budgets that need approval, it's not difficult to see that this could be one of the busiest agencies in the wing.

"My job ranges from the equivalent of being a conductor of a large orchestra, making sure everyone plays without missing a note, to herding cats," Mr. Storms said. The numbers this office deals with speak volumes for themselves.

Last year the finance office handled nearly 10,000 sets of orders and more than 11,000 travel vouchers. They paid out more than $2 million for jet fuel, $330,000 in clothing issue costs, nearly $16 million in Reserve pay and travel entitlements. Don't forget that many times while they tackled these monumental fiscal issues, they probably dropped all that paper work to meet wing members with a big smile and great customer service as they walked in the office to ask questions important to them.

Rest assured this office is the most scrutinized and accountable of all in the fighter wing and the Federal government for that matter.

Next time the gas per gallon price increases, consider that the price of aviation fuel and items needed to run a fighter wing go up as well. These affect the already structured and allocated budgets of the 442nd Finance Office.

One figure Mr. Storms is glowingly proud of is the economic impact numbers of the 442nd FW. This is how the local economy is affected by the wing's existence. More than $48 million is pumped into the economy annually, a benefit for the wing and its neighbors.