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Wing Commander Q&A: Keeping Cyber Personnel, Fitness Center and Gym renovations, Recognition

  • Published
  • By Col. Laura Lenderman
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Commander

Here is the next round of Q&As from my most recent Commander’s Call.

I posted these responses and previous Q&A to our wing Sharepoint site and our public website, www.scott.af.mil, for future access and review.

Please keep the questions coming!

PERSONNEL ISSUES

Is there a way to get more adequate information on commissioning for enlisted personnel?

Thank you for your question and interest in our commissioning programs. Yes, our Force Support Squadron is available to provide all the information you need to include routinely holding education seminars and posting information on commissioning opportunities. Our FSS also issues a weekly personnel update that periodically includes commissioning opportunities. We’ll encourage Group and Squadron leadership to continue to share that information with our Airmen. For more information, please check with your squadron leadership or contact the Force Support Squadron’s Education and Training Center at 256-3327/3328 for more information.

 

What is the Air Force doing to keep Cyber professionals and critically skilled Airmen in the Air Force?

In order to retain Cyber professionals, officers with 4-8 years of service are currently being offered retention bonuses. Retention in the enlisted cyber career fields is not an issue that currently warrants the use of bonuses, but those incentive bonuses are reviewed each year and can be used if retention becomes a problem. Military cyber professionals have unique opportunities to gain experience and exposure to offensive and defensive cyber capabilities that are not available in civilian jobs, and that opportunity entices many people to enter and remain in the field. Importantly, the network sustainment work that many of our cyber professionals accomplish is critical to our ability to accomplish the Air Force mission, and work is underway to make current and relevant training more accessible and diversify the work experience available to cyber professionals through deliberate development programs. For those cyber professionals who choose to leave Active Duty when their service commitments expire, we encourage them to continue to serve as members of our total force and transition into one of our many critical Guard, Reserve, or Civilian cyber positions and continue to leverage the training and experience the Air Force has provided.

 

Everyone seems to get “stuck” at Scott. Is there something about this base that makes it more difficult to PCS?

Great question. While we rotate hundreds of personnel during each PCS cycle, Scott AFB is rather unique in that we have several related mission sets spanning the Wing, multiple Higher Headquarters, and Mission Partners. Airmen often move between agencies at Scott versus PCS off the installation. In addition, some of the specialties within our Wing, including software application developers, are only located at a few installations in the Air Force. Airmen in this type of careerfield may not PCS as often as other Airmen. Likewise, some careerfields are undermanned which may also drive fewer PCS opportunities. If you have specific questions about your ability and availability to PCS to another duty location, please reach out to your squadron leadership or contact the Force Support Squadron’s Career Development Section at 256-5909.

If you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Chief Mathis or me.

 

As a lower rank NAF employee, how can I get recognized for things I’ve done when I compete with higher ranking supervisors.

Thank you for your question. Recognition and employee feedback are critically important to maintaining our workforce. There are a variety of recognition opportunities available to supervisors of NAF employees, ranging from an on-the-spot cash award to nomination for a squadron, group, or wing quarterly award. Supervisors can also use various informal methods of recognition such as employee of the month programs or simply recognition in a staff meeting. Supervisors are responsible for recognizing employees who are working above and beyond their normal duties. Awards are not given based on grade/rank, but rather on accomplishments and working beyond primary duties. I encourage you to continue to work hard and do your best. If you haven’t been provided feedback by your supervisor, I encourage you to make an appointment with your supervisor to request feedback. This is an opportunity to highlight your accomplishments with your supervisor. I also encourage all supervisors to find meaningful ways to recognize their hard working staffs. Hopefully, this helped answer your question. If not, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly or if you’d like to remain anonymous, you can contact me through our Action Line.

 

INSTALLATION & FACILITIES

Considering fitness is so important, is there going to be anything done to improve the gyms? They are very crowded and lacking enough equipment.

Improving our fitness centers is one of my top initiatives. We are nearing completion on a significant renovation of the Fitness Center (adjacent to the Parade Field) which includes new equipment, new flooring, painting of the entire facility, roof repair, and multiple other improvements such as installation of free WiFi. We’re also renovating the flooring at the James Gym, installing several pieces of new equipment, and building a new parking lot adjacent to the building. Long term, we continue to prioritize and advocate for a new fitness center at Scott AFB. We care about your needs and customer experience, so please contact the Fitness Center Staff to provide specifics about what equipment we are lacking so we can best support you and the community.

 

When will the HAWC be finished with renovations?

Thank you for your question. Health Promotion, formerly known as the Health and Wellness Center, has permanently moved from the Fitness Center location to the main floor of the Medical Clinic. All services, classes and clinics are still being offered to include the body composition (BOD POD). The contact number also remains the same at 256-7139. The remaining construction you see in the Fitness Center includes improvements to the entryway, locker rooms, aerobics room, roof repairs, and ceiling tile replacements. Those projects are nearly complete, and we’ll begin additional work to repair the exterior when the weather warms up in a few weeks. We expect the exterior work to be completed in early Spring.

 

What is the status of the mold clean up in the Wing Hq Building (P-3)? And why was not everyone in the building told about it?

Thank you for your question. Rest assured we are continuing to address the mold and associated lingering moisture concerns throughout building P-3. In response to a concern raised in July, the Aerospace Medicine Squadron conducted a walkthrough of the building and forwarded the results to Bioenvironmental Engineering for analysis. Although the results of the analysis did not specify any immediate health threats or required actions, the facility management team notified all Agencies in the building while also pursuing the remediation and mitigation recommendations in the analysis report. If you were in the building at the time, you’ll likely recall the mold removal that occurred later in August to clean the more heavily affected areas, as well as the work our Civil Engineers performed to clean the downspouts and gutters to help keep moisture from gathering close to the building and encouraging further mold growth. The facility managers have also continued to work with our Civil Engineers to develop a plan for comprehensive removal of the mold, as well as scheduling projects like upcoming HVAC work to reduce interior moisture and help prevent future mold issues. Since mold is often a persistent problem, we’ve also rolled these concerns into a building redesign scheduled to take place over the next few years to ensure the facility remains as mold-resistant as possible. If you see any work areas that aren’t being addressed or have any additional concerns, please raise them immediately with your Agency chiefs or facility manager.

 

With a large amount of shift workers on base, is there any possible way for some of the on-base food facilities to stay open later?

The Force Support Squadron and AAFES offer several evening meal options, listed below. We regularly evaluate our customer needs and participation to determine our hours of operation. We are responsible to ensure that our food operations not only meet our customer expectations, but are also financially viable. Currently, due to the number of shift workers and operational needs at Scott, we are not authorized the manning to have a fourth meal (i.e. midnight meal). However, the Flight Kitchen is on call for flightline deliveries to meet direct flying mission requirements. We will continue to balance the desires of our customers, with the financial obligations of operating the MWR Fund. Thanks for your support of the Force Support Squadron Food Operations, we appreciate your business.

 

Nightingale Inn (dining facility):

·         Monday-Sunday: Grab & Go meal options available from 6-8 p.m.; and

·         Flight Kitchen: On call 24/7 for flightline deliveries, as mission requires.

 

Bowling Center Snack Bar:

·         Monday-Thursday: Open until 9 p.m.; and

·         Friday-Saturday: Open until 9:30 p.m. until Labor Day/winter hours until 9 p.m.

 

Zeppelins/Scott Event Center:

·         Wednesday-Friday: 4-7 p.m. (customer count low w/only 1-2 food orders per night); and

·         Sunday: noon-5 p.m. (football season only).

 

Student Union Café:

·         Monday-Friday: 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (customer sales in evenings are low).

 

AAFES hours:

 

Charley’s Grilled Subs :

·         Monday-Friday: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and

·         Saturday-Sunday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

 

Taco Bell:

·         Monday-Friday: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and

·         Saturday-Sunday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

 

Panda Express:

·         Monday-Friday: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and

·         Saturday-Sunday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

 

Dominos:

·         Sunday-Thursday: 10 a.m.-midnight; and

·         Friday-Saturday: 10 a.m.-2 a.m.

 

McAlisters Deli:

·         Monday-Friday: 7 a.m.-6 p.m.; and

·         Saturday-Sunday: 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

Recently, we have done Unit PT at Patriots Field, and we were told by the youth center that the field is only for the “youth.” How true is this?

Thanks for the opportunity to provide clarification on the use of the Youth Center baseball and soccer fields in Patriots Landing.

These fields were built to support our Youth Sports Program. However, units can use them for PT when they are not in use. To avoid schedule conflicts, units who would like to use these fields are asked to contact the Youth Center at 256-5139 to ensure that the fields are available.

 

When can we get another UFC fighter to the Scott Event Center?

We are constantly evaluating different types of events we can host for the Scott community and are glad there are many of you out there who enjoyed the UFC event we hosted in 2016. The last UFC fighter that we hosted was sponsored by MetroPCS, and we have good news - they’re looking into sponsoring another visit in the near future! We’ve been working closely with MetroPCS to determine fighter availability and to de-conflict with other events being hosted at the Event Center. As soon as we have more details, we’ll share them with the base so everyone can enjoy the event.