Photo By Staff Sgt. Megan Shepherd | Senior Airman Raven Jones, 179th Airlift Wing Maintenance Group Command Support Staff,...... read more read more
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Women at the 179th AW are outnumbered by male Airmen, currently the unit is under 25% female, and that statistic is not unusual for any military installation. The goal is to raise that number to 30% by 2026. As the unit approaches its 70th anniversary it strives to reach further milestones of empowering female Airmen.
Recently, the unit has made history appointing Col. Allison C. Miller as the first female wing commander in the Ohio Air National Guard. Last year, Col. Patricia L. Barr became the Mission Support Group Commander and a female from the unit Chief Master Sgt. Heidi A. Bunker, was selected to be the Command Chief for the 178th Wing. The 179th AW currently has two female Chief Master Sergeants, Chief Dana M. Togliatti and Chief April R. Gunnoe.
Leadership roles are an important step to acknowledging that although they are still outnumbered, they are valued for the diversity they bring to the unit and equal in their ability to get the mission accomplished.
For some of the youngest Airmen, these changes are happening while they are still trying to figure out their roles and career ambitions. Some of the women have been around long enough to personally feel the climate change and can remember a time when they personally felt limited by traditional gender roles.
Senior Airman Raven Jones is a part of the Commanders Support Staff in the Maintenance Group at the 179th Airlift Wing. In her position, she monitors all things readiness related for her fellow maintainers to ensure they are deployable and that their paper work is in order for evaluations and promotions. As part of the orderly room, she ensures members get compensated properly by assisting with Defense Travel Systems vouchers and writing the military orders that activate members for temporary duty or active duty tours.
Most Airmen lean on the support of the orderly rooms to ensure their paperwork is in order.
“I feel the work we do in our office is very important,” said Jones, “We help the maintainers with stuff they don’t normally know how to do…they are super good with the aircraft, not so good with computers.”
Jones was recently awarded the Air Force Achievement medal on her first deployment and coined for outstanding performance while working with the Air Force Reserve Command. Jones said the experience was both rewarding and challenging because she endured a tragedy back home but was able to remain strong and pull through the deployment with the support system of fellow Airmen, family and friends.
Jones said plans to re-enlist while saying, “I did join to pay for school, but later down the line I noticed that there was a lot of genuinely good people here and I definitely want to make a career out of it.”
The Maintenance Group was predominately male for many years but as the female numbers are growing, Jones says she’s noticed a shift in the culture.
“It feels awesome, because I see more females around here than when I first got in.” Jones added, “I remember when I first joined, my first weekend in maintenance, I looked around and there were just a few females and no black females. It’s definitely exciting to be a part of the change.”
Although outnumbered throughout the squadron, Jones said that her first supervisor was a female.
Jones said, “She trained me well, taught me a lot of good things. Then over the years my training has come from many others, I’ve found mentorship across the wing.”
The numbers of females in career fields such as maintenance are growing and the females who have endured an era of traditional role separatism are glad to see re-enforcements joining them.
Jones expressed how she feels that any misconceptions of females are misguided, “Some males might think that we can’t do the same work because of physical limitations but seeing females who can show them and say ‘Been there. Done that.’ Proves that they can do the work, it’s inspiring.”
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.09.2018 16:58 |
| Story ID: | 268833 |
| Location: | MANSFIELD, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 85 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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