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Show Chief. master Software firm shows special interest, tours 1 6 simulator sergeant select reaches goal F-- By Staff Sgt. James A. Rush 388th FW Public Affairs The software firm responsible for computer animation in "Godzilla," "Antz" and "Ally McBeal." sent three of its executives to tour the 388th Fighter Wing Simulator facility Nov. 17. Could wing pilots soon be launching missiles at the giant lizard? Or perhaps have the "Dancing Baby" flying wingman? Not likely. Viewpoint DataLabs International, Inc., is interested in expanding the product ljHe.it offers to the Department of Defense, but their vision is" more of digital aircraft models and terrain databases. Viewpoint software is By Airman 1st Class Cindy Richards Editor, Fighter Country F-- A senior NCO from the 34th Fighter Squadron is among the Air Force's newest chief master sergeant selects. Senior Master Sgt. Sheila 34th FS Sortie Generation Flight chief, is the only 388th Fighter Wing member to make the recent promotion list released Nov. 19. "I felt a great sense of pride," said Sergeant "It would have been nice to have seen more of the other senior master sergeants on the list as well." The ultimate goal for the 21 year Air Laferty-Dickerso- n, Laferty-Dickerso- 3-- D n. currently being used by DOD contractors like Boeing. Lockheed and -- Force veteran was to become a chief master sergeant before she retired. "I saw others retiring as technical sergeants or master sergeants, I knew when I came in that I was going to retire a chief master sergeant," said the Billerica, Mass., native. Now that she has Senior Master Sgt. Sheila reached her goal, the Laferty-Dickerso- n chief select said she doesn't know quite yet what's in store for her in the future. "The job that I am assigned now is specifically a senior master sergeant position," she said. "I haven't been told yet where they plan to move me, but whatever job they do assign me I just plan to do the best job possible at being chief," added Sergeant Laferty-Dickerso- Raytheon. 1 courtesty photo "We've been in the entertainment business for about 10 years," said Michael J. Lundberg, Marketing vice president. "We've moved into military simulations in the past couple of years providing models and computer graphics," he added. The tour of the simulator here is part of the company's effort to learn about its clients and the people 0s 3 s'yV. n. Laferty-Dickerso- Viewpoint executive Ken Winward tests his flying skills in a unit training device under the instruction of Capt. Chris Kott, 4th Fighter Squadron pilot. Fred Drake (left) explains how the simulator operates to other executives observing the flight. who use its clients' products. Viewpoint did not create the software currently used, but has programs with similar capabilities, according to Mr. Lundberg. "We wanted to understand how the simulator is used." he said. "So we asked to speak with a pilot who uses the simulator and does the real thing fly to help determine the value of simulator use." Capt. Chris Kott. 4th Fighter Squadron pilot, and Fred Drake. 1 6 Flight Simulator Instructor, demonstrated how the unit training devices, or UTDs. are used. This included an explanation of the pros and cons of the UTDs versus the old simulator. Ken Winward. Government and Defense account executive, even had a chance to test his flying skills. Despite having no flying experience, short of personal computer simulators, his flight went well and ended "with a landing I can walk away from." Viewpoint hopes to build and provide the Air Force with databases that are more geographically specific than those currently being used, according to Lundberg. More information about Viewpoint DataLabs can be found on the business" web site at wwv.viewpoint.com. F-- The sergeant isn't the only one happy and excited about her recent selection to the rank of chief, her husband, Michael, is equally happy. "My husband just retired from the Air Force four months ago. He is very proud of me and what I have achieved," said "He has always been very sup- Sergeant portive of me and my Air Force career." photo by Stall Sat. James A. Rush courtesty photo Matt Paulson, Viewpoint senior digital sculptor, digitizes a foam rubber sculpture of Godzilla's head. n. I Pay gap exists, military leaders working Garamone By Jim American Forces Press Service . - "What we started to do was look and see how we can prevent that. The serious effort started nine months ago.' WASHINGTON ( AFPN) While experts In the past, military pay has been loosely can argue about its size, a pay gap exists and tied to federal civilian employees' pay raises. the Department of Defense will start closing By law, civilian raises are keyed to the Buit in the next budget cycle, the nation's top reau of Labor Statistics' Employment Cost of a percentmilitary leader said. Index, or ECI, minus one-ha- lf Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of age point. The ECI measures the growth of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; was responding to private-sectwages and salaries. To address the pay gap. defense offinewspaper reports quoting a Rand Corp. cials said, military raises must match the full paper implying there was no gap between ECI level. The fiscal 2000 pay raise is set for military and civilian-sectpay. On the con4.4 percent. The ECI for fiscal 2000 is estitrary, DOD officials said, the gap is 8.5 percent to 13.5 percent depending on the year mated at 4.3 percent. Pay raises for the Fuused as a baseline. ture Years Defense Plan are now set at 3.9 General Shelton said DOD is committed percent. to revamping the entire military compensaOfficials also said they are working on a tion package in its fiscal 2000 budget, to inretirement package. They said service memclude retirement and military pay tables. bers think Redux, the plan w here retirees re"The president has indicated ... he ceive 40 percent of base pay after 20 years wanted the secretary of Defense William S. service, is not a career incentive. They would Cohen and me to work with the Joint not comment directly on proposed changes, Chiefs to look at the entire entitlements packbut said they are looking at everything, inage and come back to him with where we cluding a modified 40 k or thrift savings plan. felt we needed to go," he said. Changing the structure of pay tables is "If you go back to the previous era of another major effort. "The pay tables were big pay raise- s- in 1979, 1980 and 1981 you meant for a force that came into the service for will see defense officials waited until the a short time three, four years and raises military was broke and then they went to were hefty in those first four years." said a fix it," said a Joint Staff official. Joint Staff official. "This needs to change." or or 1 - - - Officials said the pay gap is not large for junior enlisted members or junior officers, but it widens appreciably for and senior noncommissioned officers and officers. "It can be as much as 20 percent for some specialties and pay grades." said a Joint Staff mid-ran- official. Targeting pay raises is the answer. Whether these pay raises will be on top of a 4.4 percent pay raise or as part of it remains to be seen. "It all comes down to resources." said a defense official. Officials said the Rand paper that caused the ruckus was "not ready for prime time," The study is a work in progress and is only part of the information defense planners will use in revamping the compensation system. "As we deliberate in putting a compensation package together, we go beyond what Rand was asked to look at." said one official. "You have to take into account the professional experience and education our troops get." The average new service member is 1 8 or 19 years old with a high school education. "We feel their pay is pretty competitive to what their cohorts in the private sector may earn," the official said. "But just as their civilian cohorts continue to gather education and work experience, so do our people. There is not a good crosswalk between the to close it military and civilian sides. "We ask our people to do different things." he continued. "We tell our DeoDle to move every couple of years they don't have a choice. We don't give them overtime for the hard work they do. and as the force gets smaller our people are working harder. We don't send civilians into danger and we don't ask civilians to lay down their lives for their country. So. the military person is different and you have to take that into account when making pay com- - parisons." General Shelton is pleased with the support a compensation overhaul seems to have on Capitol Hill. "Congress coming in and supporting legislation in fiscal 1999. I think, was a positive sign." he said. "There are a lot of people in Congress who understand where we are right now and what's going to have to be done to maintain this quality force that we've got." With all the discussion on the size of the pay gap. when will officials know when the pay gap is closed? "You have closed the gap when you are turning people away at the recruiting stations and you are having to look at how you're going to maintain promotion profiles because so many people want to stay." said a defense official. (Courtesy- of ACC Sews Service) - |