Mighty Ninety on the right track

  • Published
  • By Col. Greg Tims
  • 90th Missile Wing commander
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, WYO. --  Cheyenne Frontier Days is right around the corner. I hope you, your friends and your family get a chance to get out to the park and enjoy the festivities. I know Julie and I are looking forward to attending the many concerts CFD offers. Hope to see you there!

We recently had what I thought to be a first-class operation's group change of command. We said goodbye to Col. Bryant Anderson and his wife, Christy. Bryant had been doing the job for more than 38 months. That is a very long time to be running that hard. We thank both Bryant and Christy for all of their great work.

Be sure to welcome Col. Rob Vercher, 90th Operations Group commander, his wife Amy and their family to the Mighty Ninety. Rob comes to us with a career steeped in missile operations.

My personal thanks go to Lt. Col. Mark Schuler, 321st Missile Squadron commander, for organizing such a superb event and Lt. Col. John Duda, 319th Missile Squadron, for his outstanding emcee skills. Like everything they undertake, the 90th Operations Group does it with style and class.

Just a quick thank you to Kay Bybee, 90th Security Forces Group secretary. She filled in while Nila was on leave. Kay does such a wonderful job and keeps our front office moving right along. Thank you Kay -- you rock!

Monday, we hosted Maj. Gen. C. Donald Alston, 20th Air Force commander, for his first base visit. I can't tell you how special it was to get our Airmen in front of our Numbered Air Force commander.

We started off with pre-departure where Capt. Kenon Thompson, 320th Missile Squadron, provided a superb briefing.

We moved on over and attended guard mount. Our defenders looked spit and polished as they began their trek out to the missile field. Airman 1st Class Joshua Howard, 90th Missile Security Forces Squadron, was the first to ask General Alston a question. I like the way he began his question when he told the general that he was in the presence of the best security forces in 20th AF -- Hooah!

I hope you had a chance to attend General Alston's commander's call. It is good for us to hear his thoughts and vision. I found his points refreshing and motivating. It was also clear to me that we are already "lined up" with his expectations. We ensure precision and reliability in everything we do as well as the fact that the product we produce here in the Mighty Ninety is combat capability. We also believe no one is more important in this wing than anyone else, and everyone is needed if we are to be successful. Finally, readiness is never static.

I have no doubt we will meet General Alston's priorities as we continue our quest for daily excellence.

We had a chance to stop by and see a few dorm rooms in the "Dorms-Four-Airman" layout. I can't wait until February of 2011. The reason being, all of our Airmen will be out of the 800 series dorms and into one of the ten brick dorms facing Randall Avenue. This is a great thing to be able to provide our Airmen.

We then stopped by the medical group to show him our Personal-Reliability-Program process. Physician's assistant Rob Washburn and Jill Emmons provided General Alston a briefing on where we had been and where we are now with our program. It is eye watering how far our PRP office has come. We have a handful of dedicated folks that ensure every "i" is dotted and "t" is crossed. I sure do appreciate their dedication, because when it comes to PRP, the paperwork is either accomplished correctly or not. And as we all know, our combat capability rests on the foundation of this program.

We then had lunch with our group and squadron commanders and some key civic leaders. This was an excellent forum to discuss a few issues in depth and show General Alston that the bond between this base and the community of Cheyenne is simply unprecedented.

On the way to the weapons storage area, Bill Fussinger, 90th Civil Engineer Squadron, rode with us and provided a superb discussion on our three wind turbines. At the WSA, the security forces knocked every post brief out of the park and nailed the 90th mission and vision statements.

The general also received detailed briefings from Julie Whalen, 90th CES, on the many upgrades that civil engineering is accomplishing out there and from Maj. Jerrod Duggan about his folks and the mission of the 15th Munitions Squadron.

Next, we received an NWRM briefing from Suzanne Barto, 90th Logistics Readiness Squadron, and her folks. When it comes to shipping and receiving NWRM material, perfection is the standard. It really is that simple. Suzanne and her folks have implemented several programs that are now used Air Force wide. This ensures the proper checks and balances are in place on each and every shipment.

The final stop allowed us a chance to show off our maintainers. We arrived at the maintenance bay and Tech. Sgt. Randy Knox and Staff Sgt. Chris Bird, both from the 90th Maintenance Operations Squadron, briefed General Alston on some of the particulars of our transporter erectors. Our maintainers have been doing Herculean work these days -- lots of maintenance going on and lots of successes to brag upon as a result.

I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the visit this week. It was a superb performance by all.

One last item to report to you this week. In case you didn't hear, our very own CE squadron played for the base softball championship this past Thursday and won by the ten-run rule at the end of the 5th inning. This makes it a "3-pete" ... A.K.A three championships in a row. Well done and way to dominate!

Go forth and Conquer!