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BOISE, Idaho -- After intense scrutiny during December’s Unit Training Assembly the 124th Maintenance Group announced an overall strong passing grade to Exercise Monarch Fury. During this Operational Readiness Exercise, the group prepared for all the demands of combat preparation they can expect during the 124th Fighter Wing’s Operational Readiness Inspection re-take during April UTA.
One reason for this success was the improvements in maintenance planning. According to Lt. Col. Andy Logan, 124th Maintenance Squadron commander, several Maintenance professionals enhanced how they communicated the key steps of sortie generation to all participants in the exercise. “We broke out every step of the sortie generation process individually and demonstrated every step clearly to the people who needed the information most,” he said.
Three maintenance planners created poster-sized charts that all persons in the general area of the work could easily see and stay abreast of the maintenance generation progress. “This ORE was the first time we’d ever done a blend between generating the aircraft (a Phase One inspection) and hung bombs on them (a Phase Two inspection) all in one exercise,” said Lt. Col. Logan
“In March we’ll follow the same process as we refine items for the April retake ORI,” Lt. Col. Logan said.
Leaders in the 124th Maintenance Group see encouraging signs of progress everywhere. “We’re on an upward slope,” said Maj. Eric Newman, 124th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander. “The great planning products engaged the senior NCOs. We acted like a maintenance group (and not individual units within) and it really brought a lot of our people together for a common goal,” he said.
“Every participant of every rank knew where we were within the plan and our observers complimented us for how we appeared to function as one team. This is because everyone knew the plan,” Major Newman said.
Lt. Col. Logan likes to think of the upcoming exercise with a sports analogy. “When the starting gun goes off we already have the momentum, we just need to keep doing everything the right way and not worry about when an inspector is watching and maintain our confidence,” he said.
“As officers, we are trying to stay out of the way of our capable senior NCO leadership—they can take us all the way. They are extremely knowledgeable. We have the best and most experienced force that we’re ever going to see in the Idaho Air National Guard,” Lt. Col. Logan said.
The Maintenance Group has 500 members and 90 percent of them serve in the traditional part-time role. “Our traditional Guardsmen are the key piece to our success during the April operational readiness inspection,” Lt. Col. Logan said.
Maintenance group leaders also want to bring perspective to the encouraging results they’ve seen. “April is not the finish line,” Major Newman said.
Vice Wing Commander Col. Brad Richy shared his first-hand observations of the Group’s progress. “Setbacks can be a learning experience. It is always hard to set realistic goals, either for yourself or for an organization that you manage. The goals must appear to be achievable but challenging enough to improve the organization in its quest,” he said.
“We all have experienced temporary setbacks. We fall, jump up and dust ourselves off. We can do that with style, forget the shock, learn from the situation and be a better person or organization for experiencing the setback. That’s what’s important. We have a proud past in the Idaho Air National Guard. We know that, and have the trophies to show just that. I ask that we keep our goals extremely high (maybe even unachievable), work extremely hard, show our “First Class” ability to dust ourselves off, hold our heads up and continue the superb tradition that is standard with the Idaho Air Guard,” Colonel Richy said.
Wing commander Col. James R. Compton also noted that “All airmen (of the 124th Wing) must be prepared and be engaged.”
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 02.01.2012 14:27 |
| Story ID: | 83146 |
| Location: | BOISE, IDAHO, US |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 124th Fighter Wing 'Monarch Fury" results encouraging., by Lt. Col. Gary Daniel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
