Photo By Tech. Sgt. Phillip Butterfield | TOCACHE, Guatemala – U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Hafenstein, green, 378th...... read more read more
Subscribe
This agent of doom or piece of mind is known as the Quality Assurance Inspector and Task Force Red Wolf’s QA is U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Hafenstein, green, 378th Engineer Det. Facility Engineer Management Team Mobilization construction inspector. After spending a day with Hafenstein, I realized he is a dedicated Soldier with an important job to do and he is neither a beast nor a guardian angel.
“When I was a young Soldier in 1986, I worked the jobsites much like they do now and when QA came around I had a feeling of anticipation. I would wonder to myself, ‘Is he going to tell me that what I have been working on for 8-hours needs to redone, or is he going to tell me that I was doing a good job.’ Over the years I learned that anticipation is relative to your experience.”
During Exercise BEYOND THE HORIZON 2016 GUATEMALA, Hafenstein was in charge of inspecting five different work sites, three clinics and two schools. While doing his job, he used more than 244 gallons of fuel, traveled more than 2,681 miles, traversed 373,632 feet of elevation, visited the sites 96 times, made 72 corrections and got sick 5 times.
However, in his daily travels, while not sick, the anticipation the construction service members would feel preceded him.
“Well, sometimes it’s good to have QA come by he helps you find stuff you missed,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Garland, blue, 1036th SAPPER Company project manager. “Sometimes, he finds stuff you didn’t want to miss but, it’s good he finds these missed pieces or mistakes before work gets too far and it would take too much time to go back and fix. When Hafenstein tells me that what my workers have done is not right, it gets me down a little bit because, I’m trying my best but, if it’s not right it needs to be fixed. Likewise, when everything is right on my site he lets me know.”
The job sites are so busy, that there has to be a QA who comes out looking. It’s good that they’re here, Garland added.
Nevertheless, Hafenstein is charged with a critical role and that is to ensure that the work is done correctly and meets the intent of the plans.
“This is something I grew up in, this what I do,” said Hafenstein. “I’ve been in the construction industry for 30-years and have received extensive training from the Army. This job has become second nature, not just seeing what’s right or wrong in front of you but, to be able to look one-two- five steps ahead and anticipate future problems then change the plans to accommodate for the problems.”
Some problems require more than a spot correction or an adjustment to the plans. Some problems require a full stop to operations until the problem can be fixed.
“There are times that you need to order a safety stand-down, which stops work because something is too dangerous. There also maybe a problem with the plans that prevents you from going to the next step until the plans are corrected,” said Hafenstein.” However, these instances don’t happen often and during BTH2016, we haven’t had such an issue.”
Likewise, when there is a problem Hafenstein has learned from the past that saying something is wrong and walking away is the wrong approach. He has learned that for every correction or accolade a reason must be given.
“I was on a New Horizons job site in Panama in 2007 and the person that had the job I have now would critique the workers but wouldn’t offer advice or a way forward,” said Hafenstein. “This put the job site in a difficult position because they didn’t know how to proceed, all they knew was that there was something wrong. I don’t believe in this method, this is why I understand that adjustments need to be made and advice or way ahead needs to be given so, everyone can reach the end state that was planned for.”
There is no better way to waste time and resources then to do a job twice, Hafenstein added.
Through Hafenstein’s pride, dedication and know how, all five construction sites under his supervision are scheduled to be complete on time or ahead of schedule.
Beast or guardian angel, whichever moniker Hafenstein is tagged with one thing is for sure, a quality job will be delivered on time and with pride.
| Date Taken: | 06.05.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.05.2016 12:40 |
| Story ID: | 200021 |
| Location: | TOCACHE, GT |
| Web Views: | 45 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, QA, more than one way to get it right, by TSgt Phillip Butterfield, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
