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Show Ql.u Partnership principles help AFMC deliver HillAFB weather outlook ference as we provide By Gen. Lester L. Lyles Commander Air Force Materiel Command and Bobby Harnage President. American Federation of Government Employees. AFL-CI- 5-d- ay www. airfield-ops- . hill.af.miloswweather s WRIGHT-PATTERSO- AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (A KM INS) Every sue cessful organization has key ingredients strong leader-slii)- , dedicated workers, a clear road map of where it workers wants to go and focused goals. Hut there is another ingredient that strengthens an organization - strong partnerships. nership built on an important vision - labor and management working together to create and sustain an environment that takes care of our people so they can take care of the mission. And our partnership is helping us make a dif Air Force Materiel Coin inand and the American Fed- 41 eration of Government High 28JLow Employees, Mostly cloudy with a chance of light snow showers have AFL-CI- sup- port to our American warfight-erand our allies. But there was a time when our union and AFMC management did not have a strong partnership and we often engaged in heated debate about how best to serve the command workforce. But today, our relationship is built on five partnership principles: We value and respect all forged a strong, dynamic part- - We focus on our common interests and shared prob- lems We share information freely We treat each other as equals And we work to sustain the partnership process Hill working to find, keep We follow these principles with respect and appreciation for each other's roles and responsibilities. It's not a per- fect partnership, few partnerships are. But we are committed to els throughout AFMC. We are working as a team and there is no better example of our success than the Alternative Dispute Resolution program we're rolling out right now. It's a way to resolve as maintaining a climate in which management and the union work together. Whether it's on the shop floor or around as partners. It's and less expensive quicker principles is the right thing We call on everyone in AFMC, the conference room table, we must work together as partners. Following these to do. We've come a long way since we formed our command part- nership council three years ago. Our councils, both at the headquarters and our centers, are making great strides as we operationalize partnership principles at all lev disputes-no- t adver-saries-b- ut than the traditional complaint process, so it puts less strain on our ability to accomplish the mission. military and civilian, union to work and as a team and embrace our partnership principles. It will make a difference in your quality of life and in AFMC's success meeting our national security objectives. Together we can make it happen. Immersed in the mission top scientists, engineers by Sami Mansour and ing education and the benefits to both the individual and the Air Force to be gained from such education. James Seely Engineering Directorate OO-AL- The need to both recruit and retain scienatten-- t tists and engineers is receiving ion at the Engineering Directorate at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and the Ogden Air Logistics Center has launched several initiatives in order to address these issues. One of these initiatives is an increased support of the scienceand engineering PALACE Acquire program, established to heighten the Air Force's ability to maintain the leadenviing edge in today's technology-intensivronment. The program offers select scientist and engineering graduates a top-lev- 42 High 24 Low Mostly cloudy Encourage membership in appropriate professional societies so they are presented the opportunity to intermingle with industry and share ideas. Recognition of the accomplishments of scientists and engineers, including the presentation of awards and articles in the local el base newspaper. With respect to recruiting qualified personnel locally, the engineering directorate participated in the Air Force Materiel Command fiscal 2002 centralized military and civilian scientist and engineering recruiting e well-planne- three-year- development and training , efforts. Community efforts pro- gram, including one year of graduate studies in a select technology. In support of the program, the center recently sent six of its employees to Randolph AFB, Texas, for training as recruiters. Over the last three months, these recruiters have visited eight different universities and have brought back hundreds of resumes of potential candidates. state-of-the-a- 42 High 24 Low Cloudy with light snow showers The directorate also utilizes numerous local opportunities to tout the capabilities of the scientific and engineering community and to use functions such as open houses, air shows and job fairs to reach potential candidates. Engineering personnel at Hill are also actively involved in programs at local schools. This involvement ranges from direct contact with the classroom to presenting science and engineering topics to the students, to assisting with the development of science fair topics, to actually judging in the local, regional and state science fairs. rt The recruiters helped process resumes, and promoting the program has already begun to bear fruit since highly qualified scientists and engineers are beginning to accept positions at Hill. The goal is to establish PALACE Acquire positions to fill vacancies from both attrition and new workload 15-2- 5 High-lev- opportunities. Back to basics Another initiative within at the center was begun as a natural follow on to the creation of the engineering directorate itself. In developing the mission and vision statements for the new directorate it became apparent that there needed to be a on recruitment and retention. As a result of input received during the "Engineering Roadshows" conducted throughout Hill during the summer of 2002 to address the needs of the science and engineering community, both civilian and military, several topics were brought to the forefront. These included the following topics that are currently being addressed for implementation: 42 High 29 Low Cloudy r rotational assignments for science and engineering personIntra-an- d inter-cente- nel in order to keep in their selected fields and to provide them exposure to other processes and methodologies, while at the same time keep their work rewarding and challenging. Reinforcement of the need for continu 44 High 28 Low Mostly cloudy GOV drivers must get proper license by Senior Airman Scott Solomon 75th LRS Vehicle Operations Flight The Operator Records and Licensing office maintains motor vehicle records for military and civilian personnel assigned to Hill AFB and authorized to operate motor vehicles owned, rented or leased by the Air Force. The staff maintains active records AF Form 2296, "Vehicle Operator Information" for all authorized operators, regardless of motor vehicle type or gross vehicle weight assigned to the installation. Operator Records and Licensing is located in Bldg. 1 138 on the west side of the base. Anyone who operates a government vehicle, including GSA vehicles, and doesn't have an AF Form 2296 on file in the office, should contact a vehicle control officer. The vehicle control officer will help the driver complete an AF Form 171, "Request for Driver's Training." The completed form, signed by the vehicle control officer, should be brought (o Bldg. 1138. Operator Records and Licensing office hours are Monday-Fridaa.m. and p.m. except Thursdays when the of fice is closed all afternoon for training. For more information, contact Senior Airmen William Rogan or Scott Solomon at Ext. y 7-- 1 1 4 el Scientist and Engineer Career Program team from Randolph, traveled to Hill to conduct te career planning counseling sessions. Hill also helped evaluate individual goals and answered questions pertaining to the personnel process. one-on-o- mental risk assessments to commanders on the battlefield; giving medical threat briefings; and dis- Pentagon from page attention The importance of the science and engineering community to the Air Force was brought into focus recently when scientist and engineers had the unique opportunity of meeting with Lt. Gen. Stephen Plummer, principal deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. Gen. Plummer was recently selected as the Air Force scientific and engineering functional manager, and he briefed the workforce on current recruiting and retention initiatives and provided an opportunity for them to discuss workforce issues. Gen. Plummer was accompanied by Mr. Ron Garcia, chief of the scientist and engineer career program of fice at Randolph, and Mr. James Papa, chief of the AFMC Engineering and Technical Management Directorate. Also, in conjunction with Lt. Gen. Plummer's visit, Mr. Ralph Paglia, from the 1 health guides tributing pocket-sizeto deployed personnel. Kilpatrick's office also has created deployment-focuseWeb sites, such as d related medical record keeping through its Composite Health Care System II and the Theater Medical Information Program, which is still being tested. Kilpatrick said the two systems will collect immunization data electronically through a centralized data bank, along with computerized medical files currently being gathered on deployed military personnel from all the services in order to document deployment-relatehealth problems. He noted that Special Forces soldiers deployed to remote areas can now use handheld computers to gather and store medical data on soldiers and then later transmit the data to rear operations headquarters. d Still, pre- - and health assessments and electronic record keeping are only part of the force protection strategy. Kilpatrick said broader initiatives to protect deployed personnel are expected, and more research is being done. The plan includes improving health risk communication and medical post-deployme- nt intelligence; providing environ d Deploy-mentLlN- ($W ;fl i Photo by Gary Boyle Erik Thompson, right, lead physicist on the Propellant Analysis Section, explains a propellant pressure testing system to Ogden Air Logistics Center commander Maj. Gen. Scott Bergren, who is visiting various directorates during an Immersion tour allowing him to get hands-o- n experience of Hill's diverse mission. Air Force Materiel Command commander Gen. Lester Lyles has asked all AFMC center and wing commanders to get out and about on their bases and observe operations. Bergren has visited with personnel at the base pharmacy, the Maintenance Directorate, and Environmental Management and will continue his tour through March visiting operations in Space and C3I Systems Directorate,, the Contracting Directorate and the 75th Air Base Wing. Five officer specialties to receive bonus AIR FORCE PERSONNEL CENTER (AFMCNS) More than 6,000 officers in five critical skill career fields are now eligible for up to four years of a retention bonus at $10,000 per year - up to $40,000 thanks to the Air Force's Critical Skills Retention Bonus Program. People who may qualify are scientists, developmental engineers, acquisition program managers, civil engineers and communications and information officers with four to 13 years commissioned service who are willing to commit to serving up to four more years. Those eligible can start to receive their annual payments in the March - April time frame. Officers who become eligible for the CSRB before Sept. 30 have until Aug. 31 to take advantage of the bonus. This CSRB, a result of the Science and Engineering Summit held Dec. 6, 2001 at the Pentagon, is being offered to help improve retention of these five career fields, which have had the lowest retention rates in the Air Force for several years, said Lt. Col. Dean Vande Hey, deputy chief of mission support officer assignments here. "This bonus should help make an Air Force career more financially competitive with civilian sector salaries," he said. ,j Most officers who qualify for the bonus will receive the r standard active duty service commitment that runs concurrently with any other service commitments. The exception is officers who have completed 11, 12 or 13 years of commissioned service, said Vande Hey. The$1e officers would receive three-- , two- - and one-yeactive duty service commitments based on corresponding agreemenfs at the same rate of $10,000 a year. For more information, call the Air Force Contact Center toll free at (866) or DSN four-yea- ar 229-707- 4 665-500- 0. In addition, the Defense Medical Surveillance System has created a database on diseases military personnel may encounter in deployed areas. Another plan is to deploy preventive medicine and environmental surveillance teams to forward-deployeareas to evaluate health threats on the battled field. Another measure calls for improved biological and chemical warfare detection and alarm systems. And, the Pentagon is researching cur- rent vaccines and anti-malari- -- 1 i al drugs and exploring vaccines and drugs, he said. Kilpatrick said the new program shows how seriously DoD regards force health protection. "We've learned a great deal from next-generatio- n deployments over the past 12 years since the Gulf War and we intend to use those lessons to benefit those who serve today. Kilpatrick concluded. "That's what this program is all about." i Public Health holding immunization briefings 75th Medical Group Public Health officials will provide smallpox vaccination information briefings for all Team Hill mobility personnel or members who canwill deploy to high-risareas and any interested family or community members. Briefings will be held Wednesday at 8 a.m. or Feb. 28 at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the Base Theater. An additional briefing is scheduled for Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Base Theater. For information, call Public Heath at Ext. k POOI |