Contracting motto: If you got it, we bought it

  • Published
  • By Maj. David Wilson
  • 90th Contracting commander
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. --  Many people may ask about contracting, "What is it?" According to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, contracting is defined as, purchasing, renting, leasing, or otherwise obtaining supplies or services from non federal sources.

Contracting includes description of supplies and services required selection and solicitation of sources, preparation and award of contracts and all phases of contract administration. It does not include making grants or cooperative agreements.

What does all this mean? It means that behind every purchase the government makes, from airplanes and satellites to food and water, contracting is actively involved.

Others may ask, "What does contracting do?" At our home bases, we procure the items and services necessary for the base to operate and carry out its mission.

For example, some services or items contracting personnel procure are grounds maintenance, the personnel landscaping and maintaining the public areas on base; medical services, dentist at our base medical clinic; construction, personnel repairing base facilities, homes, road and gate repairs, as well as gym equipment, utility services, and uniform items such as the parkas our security forces members wear to keep warm as they stand guard at our gates.

Contracting personnel facilitate the wing's involvement in supporting the local community which so graciously hosts our military families. Many contracts are awarded to minority, women-owned, hubzone and other small business categories.

We also award contracts to businesses that employ handicapped individuals. Through government contracts, Warren is able to further aid by helping the local community provide jobs to citizens.

What do we bring to the fight you ask? Any and everything our service members need to fight, survive, and accomplish the mission. Any conflict the military is engaged in, contracting is involved.

During the initial phase of a deployment, contracting officers are sent in with initial forces to aid in providing food, water, shelter, materials and all other items necessary to establish base operations for the rest of the forces to arrive.

Often times, this requires contracting officers to dress in local customary clothing, go into local markets, engage with the local populace; a dangerous task as we often travel in small numbers and carry a lot of cash. Once the initial set up is complete and forces begin to arrive, we transition to the sustainment phase. This phase encompasses establishing local contracts to sustain the forces; providing whatever is necessary to continue operations and support the mission.

Lastly, the re-deployment phase occurs when we have accomplished the mission and our service members begin to return home or deploy to an alternate location. At this time contracting begins closing out local contracts and aiding the forces to depart.

Contracting personnel are a critical resource at home and abroad. Contracting officers are the only government officials with the authority to spend government funds.

In the Air Force, there are less than 1,800 military personnel in contracting. At present, Air Force contracting personnel provide 70 percent or more of the acquisition support in contingency missions across the globe.

We are presently in a one-to-one deployment dwell which means most military contracting personnel are deployed for six months out of each year.

We may be quiet and small in number, but we are always there ensuring our fellow service members have what they need to fight, survive, and complete the mission whether home or abroad. Our motto is: If you got it ...We bought it!