Assessment team answering JEFX questions

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Becky J. LaRaia
  • Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2004 Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFPN) --  What distinguishes the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2004 here from an exercise is not just the addition of new innovations, but the work of more than 200 people on the experiment’s assessment team.

These analysts are responsible for collecting and compiling the experiment findings for potential use by warfighters, and presenting lessons learned to the Air Force chief of staff.

This team starts with a core of 10 analysts from the Air Force’s experimentation office at Langley Air Force Base, Va. The analysts are with the experiment from beginning to end and each one is responsible for at least one of the 15 initiatives (new innovations) being tested. They also help subject-matter experts act as analysts for the experiment.

“We hand-pick the assessors,” said William Euker, an AFEO senior analyst and one of the experiment’s core analysts. “We look for subject-matter experts (who) understand the things going on in the experiment.”

Although the hand-picked team members are experts in their career fields, several have limited analysis experience.

“We’ve been able to get a lot of people, who are not trained analysts, familiar enough to operate as analysts,” said Scott Hamilton, an AFEO operations analyst and report writing leader.

A assessor’s day can last from about 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and involve collecting, analyzing and reviewing a daily influx of information.

“We try to do some analysis of the data we collect everyday,” said Mr. Euker.

The data collection is accomplished using four different techniques.

“We capture the assessment using Web-enabled tools,” said Don Holland, the AFEO Web tools leader.

These “tools” allow players to submit general observations to the assessors, take surveys, and make entries throughout the day in an electronic journal that can be accessed by the assessment team. Mr. Holland said surveys are a vital portion of the assessment, because they are targeted toward a certain area of expertise.

“If a survey question is written correctly, you can really capture a lot of information,” he said.

Hundreds of surveys have been completed for JEFX 04. When questions are directed to individuals, assessors even use the old-fashioned one-on-one interview process.

The team said they are excited to see new capabilities go through the testing phase and be fielded into the force. Maj. Brian Joos, the JEFX assessment leader and AFEO chief analyst, said the experiment appears a little overwhelming to the observer, but, “it’s a good experience, and I think we’ve got some good things coming out of it not only across the Air Force but also in the Army, Navy and coalition forces.”

Mr. Euker said he was impressed by the advances in coordination and data sharing made between the land component at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and the air and space component here.

From past experiments, the assessment team has also made advances.

“One of our successes is our assessment methodology has evolved over that time. We’ve really tried to make it more objective,” said Mr. Hamilton.

Although the experiment is too large for one person to learn everything, Mr. Euker said JEFX is a great learning opportunity.

“You get to work with some really smart people,” he said. “You learn more at JEFX than you can learn in a year at your job.”

The size of the team presented some challenges during the experiment.

“One of the challenges is integrating different teams together so we prevent redundancy in data collection,” said Mr. Euker. “A lot of these initiatives are linked together.”

Challenges are not limited to the human resources. The assessors are often geographically separated (working out of Florida, Nevada and California), and the team has some information management difficulties working with data from three separate networks, said Mr. Hamilton.

The final assessment takes about 60 to 90 days after the main experiment is completed. Major Joos will present recommendations from the experiments to the Air Force chief of staff. Once these recommendations have been approved, the unclassified portion of the report will be published on the JEFX secure Web site.