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Show Hilltop lines Hill AFB, Utah 84056-5824 www.hilltoptimes.com hilltop.pa@hill.af.mil Vol. 63 No. 31, August 12, 2004 Habitat INSIDE: •or Humanity Purple Heart monument dedicated Page 2 Airmen, volunteers help build home for Ogden family by Beth Young ,* Voting is a duty Page 3 I W: 'Puller' saves J| -" COStS f^\ Page ^Mi ' P$P Airman ' > • ^ Leadership : School graduates Hilltop Times staff A local family now has a place to call home, due, in large part, to the hard work of Hill volunteers. Every other Saturday for the last six months, 60 Team Hill members hammered, painted and landscaped as they participated in a Habitat for Humanity project in Ogden. "Their participation was very important. I would say that 75 percent of the house was built by the Airmen," saidTom Richards, Weber Davis Habitat for Humanity construction chairman. "They were the most consistent volunteer group we had. You knew you could count on them to be there." What started out as a way for the 388th Munitions Flight to get involved in the community, ended up as a base-wide project after an e-mail was sent out looking for more volunteers. "I had an overwhelming response," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Nessler, Precision Guided Munitions assistant NCOIC and assistant volunteer coordinator. "There were 30 who wanted to volunteer for the next weekend." Volunteers came from all areas of the base, from the 388th Fighter Wing and Ogden Air Logistics Center to the 75th Air Base Wing. The Hill volunteers worked alongside other members of the community who came out to help including, the Barnett's, the family whose house they were building. The family, which includes four children, contributed what is called "sweat equity" — 500 hours or more of work on the home. "Every day they said thank you," Sergeant Nessler said of the family. "They snowed their appreciation with a handshake and 'thank you' every time I left." The family members were not the only ones who reaped the benefits of the project. Many Hill volunteers found building the Courtesy photos A large bow decorates the door of the Barnett's new house, built, in part, by Hill volunteers during a Habit for Humanity project. The house was dedicated Saturday after months of hard work by volunteers and the family. DenEse Barnett contributes "sweat equity," below, along side other volunteers earlier this year. • See Volunteers, page 2 Bird's eye view Inspection Triathletes test limits Page 9 Photo by Airman 1st Class Mlcah Garbarlno Chaplain (U. Col.) Charlie Stutts, left, chats in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel with Chaplain (MaJ.) Tom Gills, senior Catholic chaplain at the Base Chapel here. Chaplain Stutts is a command chaplain for Air Force Materiel Command and augments the AFMC Unit Compliance Inspection team. The UCI will continue until Monday, and most base units are being inspected. For their part, the chapel is reviewed through interviews with the staff, accountability of tithes and offerings, staff training and other areas. Children prepare Play Page 11 Volunteer honored for excellence Page 13* Aug. 16-21 Test acceleration increases F-16 capabilities He said it took "an enormous amount of coordination" between officials at the Air Force Seek Eagle Air Force Flight Test Center Public Affairs Office at Eglin AFB, Fla.; Hill AFB, Utah; the Edwards EDWARDS AFB, Calif. (AFMCNS) - Experts here and China Lake test ranges; and numerous contractors to certify the Block 30 F-16 capable of carrying accelerated testing to equip the F-16 Fighting Falcon, for the first time ever, with a 500 pound Joint Direct the GBU-38. Attack Munition so overseas warfighters can use the F-16 Global Power Fighters Combined Test Force new capability sooner. * experts used a Block 30 F-16 from Edwards and the Experts from the 416th Flight Test Squadron built- Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Test Center in Arizona to complete the six sorties here and at China up to releasing three inert, guided JDAM weapons, known as JBU-38s, from a Block 30 F-16 at China Lake Lake, Major Sheesley said. Warfare Center Weapons Division Range in China "Block 30 F-16s are used throughout the Air Force, Lake, Calif. They successfully completed developparticularly by the Air National Guard," he said. "The mental testing here. accelerated test sent the new weapons capability right to OT [operational testing] from DT [developmental "In 30 days, operational and developmental testing were completed, which is a huge success highlighting testing], directly supporting a need to have the precithe abilities of experts in various technical fields that sion targeting capability the GBU-38 offers." worked on the test acceleration," said Eftug Pawlik, The F-16 block number increases when a new pro412th Test Wing F-16 project manager. duction configuration is established. Block 30 F-16s, also known as F-16 C/Ds, are older airframes with speThe GBU-38 decreases the potential for collateral damage on a target and increases the warfighter*s abil- cific engines, cockpit controls and display technology, Major Sheesley said. ity to precisely hit specific targets, said Maj. Don Sheesley. 416th Flight Test Squadron project pilot. In a combined effort, test experts put together eleby 1st Lt. Brooke Davis ments needed for the accelerated testing, which included tail kits, bomb bodies, software, ground testing and data analysis, according to Mr. Pawlik. 'Test range members at both Edwards and China Lake pulled many overtime hours to process data collected from the six sorties," said Mr. Pawlik. "Without this effort and dedication by the ranges and the CTF, the developmental testing would have taken much longer to pass on to operational testers." The captive-carry sorties, or sorties where the aircraft carried but didn't release the weapon, gathered system integration and performance data for CTF engineering officials to certify the Block 30 F-16 airframe to employ the GBU-38 weapons, said Major Sheesley. Air Force Seek Eagle Office experts analyze data collected ft^m sorties and certifies aircraft to carry new weapons. AATC experts' operational testing at the Utah Test and Training Range, located near Hill AFB, recently wrapped up, and watffighters overseas will soon be able to use the precision-guided GBU38 capability on F-16 Block 30s. |