UCI barometer 100 percent

  • Published
  • By Brig. Gen. O.G. Mannon
  • 82nd Training Wing commander
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  We're ready.

We've trained, inspected, reviewed and exercised. Binders are tightened up, desks are neat and the base is clean and looking good.

The Inspector General team is on station, and will show up bright and early Feb. 1 to begin their inspection. And we'll be ready and waiting.

I want to thank everyone for their hard work, flexibility and determination as we've prepared for this inspection over the course of what has been a busy and challenging year.

In our core mission, we've responded flawlessly to the training demands of the Air Force's recruiting success, delivering nearly 80,000 trained warrior Airmen -- not to mention Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and international students.

We've served as the Center of Excellence for Air Education and Training Command's efforts to effectively integrate technology into technical training. We've worked hard to make the training pipeline more efficient across the command to reduce the number and cost of Airmen out of training.

We've also gone above and beyond in fulfilling our responsibility to tell the Air Force story. We've hosted our community partners for almost 100 base events -- exposing them to our culture and mission. Meanwhile, volunteers from the base have made dozens of community events possible -- from Hotter 'N Hell Hundred to Falls Fest to Christmas in Action. On top of that, we hosted a two-day Open House and Air Show.

In terms of challenges, we've had our share. None bigger than the culmination of Sheppard's A-76 Study and the transition of our civil engineering activities to a contractor.

Through the hard work and dedication of our personnel office, commanders and supervisors, we worked hard and spent long hours working to do the right thing for our people affected by the transition. In the end, we managed to keep 99 percent of the civilians impacted employed by the government -- an amazing achievement.

That's just scratching the surface of what we accomplished in 2009. And through it all, we've been preparing hard for this inspection.

It's here, and we're ready to go. Will the team find things we can improve? Of course they will -- that's why they're here. In the coming weeks, we'll have some issues to work -- some small ones and some bigger ones. But we'll come out on the other side even better than we went in.

Whatever happens, I'm proud of all of the military members and civilians at Sheppard who have worked so hard and given so much of their time and effort this past year. It's now time, so let's pour our best efforts into this next week and show the inspection team how good we really are.

They'll look hard and give us our rating. But whatever rating they give, in my opinion, the men and women of the 82nd Training Wing have been nothing short of incredible and I'm grateful to have the privilege of leading this great team.