Z VU (PYTLU MHTPSPLZmacdillthunderbolt.com/111518/McNews111518.pdf · Students with the Sabrehawks...

Thursday, November 15, 2018

2 WWW.MACDILLTHUNDERBOLT.COM Thursday, November 15, 2018 MACDILL THUNDERBOLT

Since the end of October 2018, the skies above MacDill Air Force Base roar a little louder than normal.

On any given day, the Tampa Bay community can look to the skies to see the robust KC-135 Stratotanker fly overhead en route to fuel warfighters around the world.

However, their buzz is currently drowned out by the U.S. Navy’s visiting fleet of training jets.

Members of the Navy’s Training Squadron 86, also known as the VT-86 Sabrehawks, journeyed to MacDill to complete pilot training while the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, reurned to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, for their homecoming air show.

“Instead of crowding the airspace above Pensacola, we’ve temporar-ily moved to Tampa to continue our blocks of training,” said Lt. Brandon Brown, an instructor pilot and officer in charge of the VT-86 detachment at MacDill.

Students with the Sabrehawks learn to fly the T-45C Goshawk, a car-rier-capable trainer with a maximum speed of 645 mph. Once their six to eight months of training is completed, the students move on to pilot the F/A-18F Super Hornet, the U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet or the EA-18G Growler.

One student, Ensign Shelby Hairr, began naval flight officer training in August, and was one of the first groups to fly to Tampa from the panhandle.

“Currently, I’m still going on familiarization flights, getting to know the aircraft and learning the different systems,” said Hairr. “Our instructors demonstrate aerobatics and stalls to give us hands-on training in the Gos-hawk.”

Their curriculum involves five stages of training on subjects such as strike flights, air-to-ground missions, basic fighter maneuvers and close-air support.

“The entire training syllabus is very dynamic,” said Brown. “With 13

aircraft, we’re training 65 students to become naval flight, or electronic warfare officers, depending on the aircraft they’re assigned.”

Despite being 485 miles from home station, the Sabrehawks are con-stantly flying missions to train the Navy’s future pilots in the orange and white aircraft.

See SABREHAWKS, Page 15

COMMANDER’S ACTION LINE

The Action Line provides two-way communication between the 6th Air Mobility Wing commander and the MacDill community. Per-sonnel may submit questions, concerns or comments via email to [email protected] or Facebook @6thAirMobilityWing-CommandTeam

Website: www.macdill.af.mil

Facebook: www.facebook.com/

MacDillAirForceBase

Instagram: macdill_afb

Twitter: @macdill_afb

NEWS/FEATURES

MACDILL THUNDERBOLT Thursday, November 15, 2018 WWW.MACDILLTHUNDERBOLT.COM 3

When Staff Sgt. Kyle Snodgrass, 927th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron technician, touched down at MacDill Air Force Base, he couldn’t wait to formally introduce himself to his newborn baby.

Snodgrass was present in the delivery room when his son Griffin was born by way of a spotty internet connection and electrical power malfunc-tions at his deployed location.

For weeks, he was able to see his child through photos and online tech-nology but finally was able to officially introduce himself as “dad.”

“This is such an overwhelming experience,” said Snodgrass. “Having been away from my wife and son for some time, I couldn’t be happier to meet my son and be reunited with my wife; I really missed both of them.”

At Snodgrass’ arrival, his wife Jahee and son Griffin looked on as the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft from Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, pulled onto the MacDill flightline.

As the plane engines turned off, the first person off of the plane was Snodgrass, as he walked a straight line to Jahee as she held Griffin.

“I looked at those two at that moment and it was everything I could’ve ever imagined,” Snodgrass said. “I thought that they were the most beau-tiful people I’d ever seen.”

While Snodgrass will be adjusting to life as a new dad, Jahee says she’s glad he’s home and will help him adjust to being a new parent.

See DAD, Page 15

NEWS/FEATURES

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash.—The ability of Airmen to provide responsive air refueling and agile combat support is essential for mission success. Yet, successfully performing and completing the mission can come with a physical price. Inflight refueling specialists, otherwise known as “boom operators,” pay this toll with every mission they under-take.

“Booms (inflight refueling specialists) historically have had a lot of upper back, shoulder and neck issues,” said William Saultes, 92nd Aero-space Medical Squadron Health Promotion coordinator. “A lot of those issues stem from the nature of their job and having to maintain a posture that puts stress on the body.”

Team Fairchild’s Human Performance Cell has taken notice of the physical issues that boom operators face, and created an initiative that aims to provide these Airmen with tools to minimize the strain and dis-comfort their bodies undergo.

“We see inflight refueling as a unique career field,” Saultes said. “The amount of time these Airmen spend in a prone position with their necks pushed back during a refueling mission puts them at a higher risk of hav-ing upper back and neck issues.

“So being aware of this risk, it needed to be addressed.”Fairchild’s HPC physical therapy team conducted a head-to-toe move-

ment assessment on the inflight refueling specialists to find any motor control restrictions and the results showed similarities between each Air-man evaluated.

“We lined up 13 boomers and performed head-to-toe 360 degree evalua-tions,” said Maj. John Tonarelli, 92nd Medical Operation Squadron Physi-cal Therapy Flight commander. “We evaluated their mobility and amount of pain associated with movements in the assessment, and found that 100

See BOOMERS, Page 10


WEEK IN PHOTOS


LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark.—Team Little Rock Airmen had the opportunity to interact with and tell their stories to Gen. Maryanne Miller, commander of Air Mobility Command, during a Nov. 1-2 visit to Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas.

The two-day visit began at the base chapel, where Miller met with representatives from various organizations. This included the mental health office, casualty assistance team, sexual assault prevention and response office and chapel team – all of whom are focused on providing coordinated, proactive care for Airmen and their families.

“There is no more important thing we can do as leaders than take care of our Airmen,” Miller said. “The quicker we can get them the help they need, the better they will be in the long run; that is what this team is focused on.”

Miller sat down with spouses and shared her thoughts on the importance of retaining and developing Air Force fami-lies. Team Little Rock Airmen then had a chance to explain a localized approach to programs such as Airman Lead-ership School and the Commander’s Right Start Course, which focus on developing Airmen.

“As we pivot toward focusing on and improving our full-spectrum readiness as an organization, we are taking a look at how we, at the flight level, can have an impact on that,” said Capt. Fiona Pham, 19th Logistics Readiness Squadron materiel management flight commander, referring to how Team Little Rock is specifically looking at developing junior officers with the Flight Leadership Course. “We think it is important to develop families, so we are bringing spouses into the course as well.”

Miller provided insight into the reason leaders should focus on developing Airmen for tomorrow.

“What does the Mobility Airman of the future need to look like?” Miller asked. “Right now, we are developing great Airmen – there’s no question about that. We have to continue to sharpen and develop our skills to be ready for the threats of tomorrow.”

The first day concluded with a hands-on event led by two vehicle maintenance Airmen who assisted Miller in chang-ing a government-owned vehicle’s alternator. While work-ing, Airmen highlighted the partnership between the 19th Airlift Wing and the 189th Airlift Wing, who together have eliminated the requirement for a duplicate vehicle mainte-nance facility by consolidating to one location, resulting in saved resources and time.

Day two afforded the opportunity to experience Camp Warlord – Team Little Rock’s on-base, exercise deployment zone used for readiness training. There, Miller saw facilities that have been revitalized by the 19th AW’s efforts to im-prove full-spectrum readiness over the last year.

See LITTLE ROCK, Page 13



percent of the Airmen evaluated were stiff in the upper back, 92 percent had poor neck coordination and 62 per-cent had poor shoulder coordination.”

Boom operators work in a distinctive environment, so the HPC teams also performed an analysis of the boom pods, where these Airmen perform their duties. They also analyzed their social and cultural interactions within the workplace to better understand their mission, identify any concerns in their work area and make an action plan to address those concerns.

Going directly to the Airmen in their units, allows for every factor that may affect mission performance to be evaluated, enabling a holistic change within clinical care to focus on improving more than just physical issues, Saultes said.

“We are in the preliminary stages with the booms,” Saultes said. “We’ve done the assessments, observations, written a course of action to help them and are looking for-ward to possibly improving their health and performance.”

Maintaining health and readiness is essential for Air-men to successfully complete the mission, and the HPC is proactively seeking out problem areas throughout Team Fairchild to provide resources. By maintaining their health, wellness and readiness, Airmen successfully sup-port the mission of remaining the world’s finest total force leading the nation’s premier air refueling team.


“Recapitalizing on our training facilities at Camp Warlord has really bolstered our readiness efforts,” said Air Force Col. Gerald Dono-hue, 19th AW commander. “It has allowed us to train aggressively right here at Little Rock AFB, and then turn around and get our Airmen home to their beds. That has been instrumen-tal to our successes at hon-ing our readiness skills for tomorrow’s fight where we will need to be able to project and sustain combat airlift in degraded and contested envi-ronments.”

Shifting from the training environment to real-world operations, Miller entered a room full of 61st Airlift Squadron Airmen. Represen-tatives addressed efforts to-ward providing more predict-able and effective training for aircrew that enhances full-spectrum readiness at the unit level. Those in at-tendance discussed the cur-rent state of deployments and training.

“We need to take a look at how you’ve been deploy-ing and see where we can improve the lives of our families and retain airlift Airmen,” Miller said. “Main-taining our competitive ad-vantage requires continuous investment in our people and capabilities.”

This discussion contin-ued in an all-call with Air-men from base, focusing on achieving mobility objectives in contested environments, but ending on an important note: taking care of each oth-er at all levels.

“We are not all required to do great things, but we’re required to do things with great love,” Miller said, while sharing personal experienc-es. “Our job is to make sure that while developing lead-ers, we are looking out for our Airmen and for their re-silience at all levels.”


COMMUNITY

For all other faith groups or for any questions, please contact the Chapel by visiting http://www.macdill.af.mil/macdillchapel or calling 828-3621

Cardboard Boat Regatta & Sports Day

Base beach area. Cheer the teams on at the boat races at 1 p.m. Sports Day events at base beach and south track from 7:30 a.m.–3 p.m.

Bay Palms Golf ComplexClub Member Appreciation –

free golf and cart to AF Club card members. Call 840-6904 to reserve your tee time today. Must show valid club card when checking in at the pro shop.

Base TheaterFree movie: “Ant-Man & The

Wasp” (PG). Doors open at 1:15 p.m. Movie starts at 2 p.m. Over-flow parking available in the SO-COM parking garage.

Surf’s Edge ClubThanksgiving Buffet 11 a.m. or

1 p.m. seatings. Featuring roasted turkey breast, maple glazed ham, salads, traditional sides, and des-serts. For reservations and prices, call 840-2020.

Festival

& Dance

www.macdillfss.com

If you have an announcement or story idea for your think would be great for the MacDill Thunderbolt, just let us know at [email protected]


“MacDill to me is a great place to train because it’s new to students,” said Hairr. “We’re able to get real-time training as if we’re in an environment we’ve never been before, instead of flying over Pensacola.”

Training isn’t solely with the Navy and Marine students, but with air traffic controllers with the 6th Operations Support Squadron.

Since the arrival of VT-86, the workload on the MacDill controllers has tripled.“When our workload increases, so does the complexity and when those

two factors are boosted, our (controller) trainees have opportunities to test and solidify their skills,” said Tech. Sgt. Jordan Applegate, a watch super-visor assigned to the 6th OSS. “Normally, training new controllers can be challenging due to the limited number of unique aircraft operations and having a small airspace surrounded by four bustling airports.”

Applegate explained how T-45Cs are quick and nimble, requiring air traffic controllers to make rapid decisions. Their speed combined with the

use of different landing approach techniques require new controllers to solve problems, practice good judgment and gain a broader perspective on ATC.

“Visitors test us in new ways each time,” added Applegate. “Whether its coordinating flight plans with Tampa or Miami Center, achieving an expeditious flow of higher volumes of aircraft or responding to unexpected problems, controllers love the challenges presented by these tasks and we look forward to the next sortie.”

At the end of the day, new ATC Airmen at MacDill learn to control fast-moving trainer jets, while Navy and Marine student pilots learn to fly in an unfamiliar environment, allowing their training to benefit the joint warf-ighter as a whole.

Soon, the Sabrehawks’ roaring engines will fade off as the squadron de-parts to home station to resume training where it left off at MacDill.

“I’m so happy to have him back; I really missed him,” said Jahee. “I’m going to let him get adjusted to being a new dad, but also being back on U.S. soil.

“He’s coming back to something new that he didn’t have when he left so that adjustment period will be good for him.”

Returning from deployments can be challenging, but Snodgrass be-

lieves he has a supportive team that will help him adjust in any way that he needs.

“The amount of support we’ve received from all of our base resources has been outstanding,” said Snodgrass. “We couldn’t be more thankful to the people around the wing that have helped us, even when I was de-ployed, the people there were outstanding.”

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