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Overseeing the Airmen and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) of the Installation Personnel Readiness (IPR) office is a soft spoken man named Alvin McCray.
“Mr. McCray is the godfather of IPR,” said Tech. Sgt. Brandi Reardon, NCO in-charge of 99th Force Support Squadron (FSS), IPR office.
“McCray is very helpful,” said Airman First Class Tyri White, 99th FSS IPR technician. “We all say in the office that he is the godfather, because he knows every answer to anything.”
McCray’s quiet wisdom comes from more than 25 years of active-duty experience. He has supported deployments for individual wings up to the Combatant Command level.
“I’ve been doing this awhile,” said McCray. “I came in February 1981 and I retired June 2006, and about 90% of my time was spent on deployments.”
McCray’s experience easily mark him as an example for the members of IPR to aspire to.
“He is amazing. Any question you think of he’ll know the answer. He’s wise,” said Staff Sergeant Deja Stewart, IPR Technician. “Hopefully I’ll be as great as him.”
As the Godfather of IPR, McCray has seen how the deployment process has changed over the years.
“It still deals with receiving the tasking, validating the tasking, making sure the person selected is eligible to deploy and making sure they have completed all the pre-deployment requirements,” said McCray. “That doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is how we do it. We did it by phone call, we did it by emails, now we do it through the system.”
While McCray has seen how the process has changed over the years, his passion remains ensuring Airmen come home.
“One of the things we do before the deployers walk out, when we complete their final out-processing appointment is we say, ‘Be safe and we’ll see you when you get back,’” said McCray. “When that occurs, it is a good day. It’s a good feeling for everyone to come home.”
McCray’s years of experience and wealth of knowledge make him the chief of the IPR office, but his dedication to his IPR family and concern for all deploying Airmen make him the godfather of IPR.
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 09.23.2020 19:03 |
| Story ID: | 378514 |
| Location: | NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA, US |
| Web Views: | 76 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Godfather Deploys Airmen, by MSgt Anthony Kuhn, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
