3rd Wing Spotlight - NCO promotes modernization through JBER Arctic Spark

Photo By Senior Airman Andrew Britten | U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Justin Crawford, the 3rd Wing Plans and Programs noncommissioned officer in charge, demonstrates how to use a virtual reality headset at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Feb. 2, 2022. The headset can be used for training by creating a virtual replica of an environment to familiarize service members with their work centers or a process. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Andrew Britten)  

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, ALASKA, UNITED STATES

02.02.2022

Story by Airman 1st Class Andrew Britten 

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson   

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Justin Crawford is a noncommissioned officer who wears many hats. An ammunition troop by trade, he has taken on a role in the 3rd Wing Plans and Programs office as their NCO in charge, and also serves as the chief operations officer of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Arctic Spark.

Crawford volunteered to take on the position in the Arctic Spark lab in early 2021, and said from the moment he walked in, he was fascinated by it.
“The lab isn’t painted in standard military colors — everything is bright and super energetic,” Crawford said.

The mission of Arctic Spark is to empower Airmen to bring tomorrow’s tools to the warfighter today with the vision to ignite and sustain the most innovative culture in the Pacific Air Forces.

There are a number of spark tanks across the Air Force, and Crawford said he finds networking with other members to be the backbone of innovation. Last year, Crawford attended an Arctic Spark summit to share new ideas and concepts and said he enjoyed learning about the different mission sets of other spark tanks.

Crawford said he knows it’s easy for NCO-tier service members and senior leaders to be less open to change. He also said it’s important for Airmen who are newer to the service to have the opportunity to introduce ideas to the Air Force, because they have a fresh mind and different perspective.

“That’s how we’re going to win the wars and beat our adversaries,” Crawford said. “They know how we do our day-to-day job — it's not a secret. Innovating and merging new technology with older systems and finding better ways to do our jobs is really going to make or break it.”

According to Crawford, Arctic Spark is hoping to focus more on outreach through in-house classes that combine 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality, and other concepts to promote innovation across the force.

“If we can teach service members in the Airmen tier new skills, they’ll take them back to their work centers and the ideas will start flowing,” Crawford said. “From those ideas, we can come up with new processes, tools and techniques to find better ways to do our jobs.”

Crawford said his vision is to one day bring on full-time manning to augment the current all-volunteer structure.

For more information on JBER Arctic Spark, visit https://www.jberarcticspark.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/ArcticSparkJBER.

• Date Taken: 02.02.2022
• Date Posted: 02.16.2022 18:52
• Story ID: 414806
• Location: JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, ALASKA, US