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Show HlMtop imes Hill INSIDE: AFB, Utah 84056-582- 4 hilltop.pahill.af.mil wvyw.hilltoptimes.com Vol. 63 No. 15, April 15, 2004 Biker gathering stresses safety by 2nd Lt. Caroline Wellman 2 TSP SSISw3 Inalu Cmmmm IwaaaaJ Page 2 Ogden ALC Public Affairs As more and more riders filed into the ballroom at Club Hill Tuesday afternoon, it became apparent to everyone present that motorcycle riders on base have the potential to be an extremely vocal presence here. And as the day's safety ses- sion progressed, it became apparent that there are more than a few issues to address concerning motorcycle rid- ing at Hill Air Force Base, and across the Air Force. More than 400 men and women - civilian and military - packed 't.'crmr hss IffelWII49tl Page 3 Cripss cflsn bsnsflctel Page 6 into the club's ballroom as part of the first motorcycle safety day hosted by the 75th Air Base Wing. or at During the first-eveleast in recent Hill Field his- r, tory, gathering of motorcycle riders from across the base, " i fv Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Sullivan, i -?r"M Ogden ALC commander, and Col. Joe Sokol, 75th Air Base Wing vice commander, stressed the importance of safe and responsible riding; before Maj. Mark Devoe, interim club coordinator for the Canyon Carvers, Hill's new motorcycle associag tion, introduced the club's web site and future goals. "One of the reasons we're having this safety day is that the Air Force had a bad year last Photo by Airman 1st Class Micah Garbarino year," General Sullivan said. Motorcycle operators line up outside Club Hill for Tuesday's safety meeting. More than 400 people heard "We lost 24 people last year, and messages about responsible riding and regulations. many of those people were new riders. Here at Hill we want "The Chief of Staff is asking mission and he knows that motorReferencing Chief of Staff of to leverage the experience of the Air Force Gen. John P. bases to mentor new riders and cycles must be respected. So the people who've been at this Jumper's February Sight Pic- help them develop their skills far, I'd say we're exceeding his game for a few years so that the ture, Colonel Sokol, himself a and knowledge of riding because expectation," said Colonel Sokol. new guys get off on the right rider, emphaeveryone that rides is a valufoot." able part of the overall Air Force See Safety, page 2 sized mentorship as well. S - rx 1 l . 0 forth-comin- J -- .... N photo by Airman 1st Class Micah Garbarino . Arr.Sasssicrs the Maintenance Directorate's ISCS T82RI Kill Page 9 C2;l2!r.j deployed vcllsybsil tssni Pages 10 ager, Howard Crane, who recently retired, and Billy Osoro, both of Commodities Division business office, were awarded the Silver Eagle Award for innovation at a ceremony April 2 in Anaheim, The work they did on the partnership was a first for the Air Force. When Boeing began accepting bids for subcontractors to repair 7 auxiliary power units - the power supply to the aircraft when the engines aren't running - it stipulated that whomever the subC-1- contractor was would have to partner with the Ogden ALC to provide full depot level repair capability. That the primary government contractor required a partnership made the contract proposal unique. rc..rst Page 11 Page 12 flat-pan- ' X - - individual radar sites and check their operating status and history. ,,, C-1- Calif. Sersssnt 1st Lt. Rick Christy of the 84th RADES monitoring disflight checks a play that shows real time radar data, in this case, from the Pacific Northwest. From the display Christy can pick Three members of Team Hill M The directive to partner came from Air Force headquarters in an effort to protect core technology and core repair capabilities at the Air Force logistics depots. "Before, all the repair was done by contractors. The requirement to partner keeps the core capability at the centers," said Ms. Taylor. "The Air Force wanted each center to be able to do repairs in the case of wartime. They didn't want to be 100 percent dependent on contractors." Ogden ALC, named the center of excellence for APU repair because of its work on APU's for all Department of Defense systems, was chosen as the partnering depot in the contract proposal. Triumph Air Repair, based in Phoenix, was awarded the contract in April 2003, and work under the contract with Boeing and the partnership with Ogden began in October. Ogden is now working with Triumph Air Repair to bring components of the total workload to the depot, according to Ms. Taylor. i '..ri tS I Ogden ALC Public Affairs were recently recognized by The Boeing Company for their work on a partnership that will bring both workload and technology to the Ogden ALC. Sue Taylor, Ogden ALC Plans and Programs 7 Globemaster Sustainment Partnership man- J 7i ." 7 - by 2nd Lt. Caroline Wellman -- 1 Ci Harley-Davidso-n Boeing honors Hill trio - - Radar unit marks 50 years by Airman 1st Class Micah Garbarino Hilltop Times staff Somewhere on America's northeastern seaboard, radar sites spun slowly, tracking anything flying within 200 miles of them. On that morning, Sept. 11, 2001, no one knew they tracked aircraft and recorded data that would soon be of great interest to the entire country and the rest of the world. Radar systems across the homeland and around the globe are the eyes of America's defense. For 50 years, the men and women of the 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron at Hill AFB, Utah, have been the eye doctors. Since its inception as the 4754th Rader Evaluation Electronics Countermeasure Flight in 1954, the squadron's focus has been evaluating radar, and in 1975, the squadron became the only unit in the Department of Defense to carry out this important mission. and civilian personnel at the RADES The 95 active-dutreport directly to the Air Combat Command Communications Group at Langley AFB, Virginia. But, the RADES works hand in hand with other organizations, including North American Aerospace Defense Command, and since 911, the Federal Aviation Administration, said Lanny Clelland, associate director of the 84th RADES. "We need surveillance of the skies. ... Our mission is e to ensure that ground-baseradar is working properly and optimized to perform at a higher level," Mr. Clelland said. Prior to the terrorist attacks of 91 1, the RADES focus was supporting the Joint Surveillance System's radars tied into three main Air Defense Sectors monitoring sites around the borders of the continental United States, and one in Alaska, looking for outside threats. After 911, instead of the government replacing FAA radar, the RADES partnered with the FAA to link and optimize all internal radar to search for commercial and private aircraft whose beacons or transponders had been turned off, something they were previously unable to do. This saved the government millions of dollars and added new radar to the ADSs, said Master Sgt. Kevin Short, 84th RADES First Sergeant. Fine tuning this radar is a big part of a RADES technician's job. Like the squelch on a radio, what the radar picks up is determined by its settings and sensitivity. If radar is too sensitive, it will pick up birds and other objects that are unimportant, but if it isn't sensitive enough it could miss what it's looking for planes and missiles. Finding a happy medium and weeding through the "junk" is a big part of the RADES job, Mr. Clelland said. y d, long-rang- - The RADES is a very team, and the quality of the people at the RADES is reflected in the quality of the work, even though many of the people who come to the RADES haven't dealt with radar before, Sergeant Short said. "We don't have our own Air Force Specialty Code, and because of the unique mission here, we have to do a lot of training to equip the people who get here that have been working in other areas. Because of in here, and it helps that, we try to get mainly that many of the people here request to come back after they are transferred to other units or do remote tours," Sergeant Short said. Being the only unit in the DoD with this mission, the RADES maintenance technicians spend a lot of time at temporary duty assignments. "We aren't part of the Air Expeditionary Force rotations, but our technicians go here for a month, and there 0 for a month. They can expect to be gone days out of the year," Sergeant Short said. Information from the radar, optimized by the tech teams, in a Radar Data Recorder. Another part of is kept the RADES mission is retrieving and analyzing this data. "We used to send teams out to run software at the site to collect data and we'd have it the next day. Now we are e data and shiftworking more and more towards said. Mr. Clelland to back mission here the Hill," ing The software required to do this is designed and maintained by programmers like the 84th Senior Airman Jonathan Farber, who helped create a new program called RADES System Three. "Our job is to make what the ADSs do easier, more effective and up to Air Force standards. ... RADES System 3 helps users pull the data from radar and manipulate it to get the information they need faster," Airman Farber said. That information has been analyzed by the RADES in incidents. several unit-specif- ic 150-20- on-si- te real-tim- i high-profi- le Feb. 24, 1996, Cuban MlG fighters shot down two Cessna aircraft flown by a south Florida relief organization called Brothers to the Rescue that, in the past, leaflets in Cuba, and humanhad dropped itarian supplies to potential refugees. The attack took place in international waters. In 1999, the Department of Justice broke up a Cuban spy ring operating in Florida and prosecuted some for conspiracy to commit murder by taking part in what led to the planes being downed. Mr. Clelland was called to testify for the prosecution with radar data that when they were shot down, the planes USee Radar, page 2 I |