Photo By Staff Sgt. Dwane Young | U.S. Air Force Weapons School (USAFWS) schedulers pose for a photo at Nellis Air Force...... read more read more
Subscribe
Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in a three-part series highlighting the Nevada Test and Training Range.
Operations on the Nevada Test and Training Range are continuously going. Like a revolving door, when one training operation finishes up another is right behind it ready to begin.
Each day, the NTTR receives an influx of requests from across the force, to use the range for testing, training and evaluation.
However, beneath every routine operation that is requested exists a labyrinth of personnel, paperwork and behind the scenes planning. The preparation for these training operations involves many moving parts, and can be so intricate it can sometimes take a year to finalize.
Similar to the way one might piece together a puzzle, the schedulers and NTTR members work together to de-conflict training requests and maintain the flow of operations on the range.
According to Col. Cameron Dadgar, the NTTR commander, the range provides the support and tools necessary to keep the U.S., and its allies, prepared to dominate in the great global power competition.
“In order to continue making the best better, our team has to navigate the rigorous process required to ensure the maximum number of people have use of the range, all while being good stewards of the land,” said Dadgar.
Schedulers from various units and agencies across the U.S. meet up monthly to forecast the upcoming month’s training operations, day-by-day and hour-by-hour, to maximize use of the NTTR. This meeting is affectionately known as “Range Wars.”
“We’re in the meeting for five hours, no breaks, we just go,” said Timothy Geist, chief of flight operations for the U.S. Air Force Weapons School (USAFWS). “We understand how critical our operations are to the overall mission, so we all work together to prepare a schedule that accommodates each unit’s needs.”
While constantly moving “puzzle pieces” to facilitate each request, they also collaborate to provide the manning and infrastructure for each operation.
“Our scheduling reflects the high demand and usage of the range,” said Vernon “TC” Cash, chief of scheduling at the NTTR. “There are multiple schedules floating around at the same time and they are ever-changing, so my job is to sync them all up and make sure the machine runs on time.”
In order to keep up with the high operations tempo, the schedulers constantly pivot between planning and execution.
To assist Cash in keeping track of the constant movement within the range schedules, the NTTR has daily schedulers that are assigned single days of the week. They are tasked with identifying and resolving conflicts prior to passing the baton to the next team--Blackjack.
Blackjack is the last stop on the scheduling train. It is their job to monitor all daily ground and flying activity on the range. After receiving the finalized schedules, they coordinate all movement and ensure safety.
“These aircraft and ground units don’t know who’s on the other range or what’s going on next door,” said Cash. “Blackjack is there with them on the ground and in the air handling real-time problems.”
The inner workings of the NTTR contain enough information to fill multiple books. The men and women who work every day in its hallways, out on the range and behind the scenes, understand and take great pride of their part in this major game.
The Nevada Test and Training Range is the crown jewel of our nation’s defense, said Dadgar.
“The NTTR is the only training arena of its kind,” said Dadgar. “We provide training that prepares our warfighters for major combat operations. It can’t be replicated anywhere else in the world. We have a responsibility to the American people and we take that very seriously.”
| Date Taken: | 10.19.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.19.2020 13:48 |
| Story ID: | 381238 |
| Location: | NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA, US |
| Web Views: | 73 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NTTR: Scheduling keeps training operations on time, on target, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
