Trip to war region heightens general's resolve

  • Published
  • By Robert Ely
  • Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) --  The commander of the Air Force Materiel Command returned here recently from a trip to Southwest Asia to interact with Airmen who depend on his command for the supplies, parts and maintenance services they need to get their jobs done.

General Donald J. Hoffman shared his message for the AFMC work force that if there's something in AFMC that someone is waiting for it better not be sitting in somebody's inbox waiting for action, he said.

He reiterated that message at the HQ AFMC annual awards breakfast, attended by approximately 350 people. He elaborated on what he observed during the trip that led him to stress heightened responsiveness.

"AFMC support is well received and appreciated," General Hoffman said. "But the people there are on the far end of the supply and distribution route, and so their needs are amplified by distance and time."

The AFMC director of logistics and the commanders of AFMC's three air logistics centers accompanied the general on the trip to four sites. All of the team members identified issues they want to work, General Hoffman said.

For example, at the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, General Hoffman learned Airmen couldn't count on the gear in their chemical-protection bags to have enough remaining service life to match their deployment timing.

"Many items have a shelf life and a service life," General Hoffman said. "If we send items that will expire soon, we are putting a burden on the other end to sort them, ship expired items back and so forth. We don't need three transportation legs to accomplish what one should do. If there's a burden to be had, AFMC should bear that burden."

Also at the Transit Center, he observed delivery of mine resistant ambush protected all-terrain vehicles. Components for the vehicles, such as the gun turret, are shipped singularly on pallets, then assembled and installed on the vehicle at the forward operating bases.

"Why not double stack the accessories and save one pallet space for every two M-ATVs" General Hoffman asked. "Within this command, we have a Global Logistics Support Center unit at Wright-Patterson (Air Force Base), which has packaging and shipment experts who look at things like that."

A third issue General Hoffman identified was allowing different options for de-icing fluid used on aircraft in frigid environments.

"They go through a lot of it," he said. "It often comes in by air in drums all the way from the United States. That's a huge air expense. But a second type of de-icer is available regionally. It has different properties but could be used if allowed by aircraft maintenance technical orders; so we need to look at that, and see if it is an acceptable engineering solution that would save us a lot in transportation costs."

The general's team also made stops in Belgium and Greece where the Air Force has contracted for maintenance or upgrades to Air Force aircraft. A stop in Israel afforded a meeting with General Hoffman's counterpart in the Israeli air force. The focus of the trip; however, was on identifying opportunities to do things better.

"We always find something that leads somebody on the team to say, 'Holy cow, why can't we do business better?'" General Hoffman said. "I like to bring those things back as examples of how we can be thinking as a command and be more responsive to our deployed warfighters."