Deployed contracting makes it happen

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Bryan Bouchard
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  It is hard to believe that a stroke of a pen can cost the Air Force hundreds of thousands of dollars; it is even harder to believe that it is a staff sergeant’s pen that does this nearly every day.

Such is the job of 379th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron Airmen at a forward-deployed location. Since most of them arrived in early September, the 15 Airmen have collectively worked nearly 3,000 hours making sure the troops here have what they need, when they need it.

Staff Sgt. Greg Johnson, from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., has worked in contracting for 11 years. He said he remembers the first time he signed a half-million dollar contract.

“It was a rush knowing that I was controlling ‘X’ amount of taxpayers' dollars,” he said, “but I knew I had to spend it right.”

Sergeant Johnson said with so much money being spent on contracts to help Airmen further establish the base, being a good steward of American tax dollars is paramount in accomplishing his duties.

“I spend it like it’s my money because it is my money,” he said. “I’m a taxpayer too.”

Sergeant Johnson said that his No. 1 priority is to make sure frivolous purchases do not happen.

“We want to supply the Airmen to meet the minimum needs … no gold plating,” he said.

Not just anyone can obligate so much money on behalf of the Air Force. Contracting officers are appointed based on several factors including the complexity and dollar value of the acquisitions and the person’s experience, education and character. So it takes a special breed to make it as a contracting officer in the Air Force.

Once appointed, a contracting officer can dive head first into the business of meeting Airmen’s needs.

To make this happen, Sergeant Johnson and the other contracting officers are responsible for buying supplies, construction and services for the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing. The professionals at the contracting office have to work with every unit on the base to make sure their needs are being met.

“The (unit) will determine the need, go to their budget folks and get the money,” Sergeant Johnson said. “Then they bring that information to us, and we’ll find what they need in the local market and pay a fair, reasonable price.”

By working with the installation’s comptroller squadron and sometimes the lawyers to ensure the legality of certain contracts, the contracting officers are able to make sure they are getting the best bang for the buck for a deployed organization.

However, with great demand can sometimes come a shortage in supply. In some areas in Southwest Asia, the local economies do not have the materials or services needed by Airmen in the field. When things like this happen, Sergeant Johnson said the contracting office reaches back to the United States.

“Our local contractor market can be very small,” he said. “Sometimes you may only have one or two individuals bidding on a contract.”

First Lt. Dana Alexander, who is from Eglin AFB, Fla., has been working in contracting for three years. She identified one of the challenges facing contracting people in the expeditionary Air Force. When new Airmen are replaced because of a rotation, all projects once handled by a departing Airman have to be handled by a new person.

“You have to pick up a contract from people who have been working them for three months and run with them,” she said. “They knew the contracts like the backs of their hands.”

Minimizing the gap in continuity is very important, she said.

But one of the most important skills contracting officers must hone is people skills. They must negotiate contracts and sometimes enforce contractual obligations if they are not being met.

With negotiating, enforcing and arranging contracts, the 379th ECONS Airmen said they know they have their work cut out for them. What makes their work easier here is the benefit from what they call their favorite part of their jobs.

“Being able to interact with local people and learn their culture is great,” Sergeant Johnson said.

Lieutenant Alexander agreed and said the local people make the long hours and stressful workloads a little more worth it.

“They will bend over backward to make sure we get what we need,” she said.