AF tries reducing deployment discrepancies Published June 23, 2003 By Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker Air Force Print News WASHINGTON -- Today’s Air Force is expeditionary, and all airmen should be prepared to deploy to support military operations worldwide, according to Maj. Gen. Timothy A. Peppe.The majority of airmen arriving in an area of responsibility are ready to accomplish their mission, however, nearly 10 percent report for duty with some deviations to the required deployment items. Not all of them are mission-critical, but not having the current training, immunizations or proper uniforms places an unnecessary burden on commanders, said Peppe, special assistant to the chief of staff for air and space expeditionary forces.“We want to improve those statistics and reduce the burden placed upon gaining commanders in the AOR and ensure that Air Force personnel are ready to work when they step off the plane,” he said.The AEF concept has been in place for Air Force deployments for more than five years. The requirements for operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have been in place for 18 months and 5 months, respectively, Peppe said. He believes a better job must be done when preparing for deployments.“We have tremendous airmen and superb leadership,” he said. “I know we can do this better.”Taking responsibility is the key to showing up fully prepared to do the job, Peppe said.“If you are vulnerable to deploy in an AEF pair, you need to be ready to go,” Peppe said. “You have to do everything possible to be prepared, whether it be uniforms, immunizations, having your will up to speed or making sure all of your ancillary training is complete. All requirements must be taken into account.”Peppe also said he believes commanders should take a look at their people before they deploy.“Commanders are responsible for how their people depart the home station for a temporary duty assignment no matter where it is in the world,” he said. “It’s up to them to make sure that their people are up to speed and the (AOR-specific checklists) are followed.”Peppe has made sure the Air Force is doing the best job it can informing people about deployment requirements.“We’ve had problems in the past because all of our checklists weren’t the same,” he said. “You could look in three different Air Force instructions and find slightly different checklists.”Because of this, the Air Force vice chief of staff streamlined the checklist and broke down the items into two categories – mission-critical and non-mission-critical, Peppe said.“We didn’t arbitrarily decide what was MC and non-MC,” he explained. “The users, Air Force component commands, decided what an individual has to have to be functional when they show up in a given AOR. These inputs were then coordinated through the major commands before being categorized into a checklist.”The vice chief of staff’s message, sent to the local personnel readiness units, also lists common discrepancies and serves as the interim deployment guidance until the instructions can be revised.“This should help commanders and airmen focus on those items that they have to have in order to be functional the day they walk off the airplane,” he said. “Airmen and commanders can find additional information on AOR-specific requirements from the AEF Center’s Web site.”The Web site is restricted for dot-mil users only.The first airmen to fall under this new guidance will be those deploying with the Blue AEF.“We’ll be looking to see how we do when those 16,000 people rotate into the different AORs,” Peppe said. “Hopefully this new guidance will help both deploying airmen and the gaining commanders and eliminate the number of the discrepancies.”