DUKE FIELD, Fla. -- The 919th Special Operations Wing commander installed commander's comments/suggestion boxes at various locations around the base. When the questions/comments are applicable wing-wide they will be published on the home page and members who provide their name and contact information will be contacted directly.
Here are the November comments/suggestions and the commander's responses:
Retreat/Reveille
Comment: Why is Retreat and Reveille not played at Duke Field?
Response: Good question, and one I had never thought about. I’m sure many of our members have participated in the daily observances associated with the playing of reveille or retreat at the beginning and end of the day. It is a time honored tradition the military has been used to remember our fallen heroes who gave their all for the freedoms we enjoy so much. By regulation, the installation commander has the responsibility for determining the time and location for playing reveille and retreat, in our case this is the 96th Test Wing commander at Eglin AFB. We will continue to research the regulations and bring this issue up with him and his protocol office for discussion.
Budget
Comment: This wing has to be one of the worst wings when it comes to budgeting. As a traditional reservist when you are notified that you have a tasking line number and a school date and let your employer know those dates then to find out that your orders are not approved and cannot get an answer as to when they will get approved you go back to your employer and tell them you would like to be put back on the work schedule because you don’t know if you are going to school only to find out that the work schedule is full. Kudos to the people pulling the strings. Here is a great idea, why don’t we cancel one UTA (UTAs are mostly useless because of all the meetings, no training gets done) so we would have money for schools and could plan.
Response: I disagree with your assertion that this is one of the worst wings when it comes to budgeting. The Continuing Resolutions of the last several years have been extremely difficult for all of AFRC; there are a number of wings that have cancelled or curtailed UTAs or otherwise shut down operations due to funding issues. While it hasn’t always been pretty, our wing has funded all critical functions. Supervisors and commanders are very aware of the impact the funding/orders issues have on your lives and strive to provide as much stability as possible.
To speak specifically on the school issue, keep in mind that TLNs are supposed to be centrally funded from AFRC. When working properly, this process is designed for units to receive funds at the same time TLNs arrive. In reality, these funds normally flow later which requires the wing to front the money for all schools from the budget we were given. In the last week of October, we had $1.4 million of TLNs and of that we had cut and obligate $1.1 million worth of school orders. The funding we received from AFRC was only $740,000. At the same time, we were told we could not use other funds and reprogram them into the schools account. It took a week or more to get this straightened out. To my knowledge, the 919th managed to fund every TLN while also supporting other tours we had committed to knowing that people had rearranged their lives for these training opportunities. Something else to remember is that a seasoning tour is not a school tour and operates by a completely separate set of rules.
The wing did reschedule October UTA knowing the federal budget issues would cause a great deal of turmoil in the lives of wing members regarding whether there would or would not be an October UTA. This gave us the ability to have the Wing Day on Saturday of the three-day November UTA without a great loss in productivity.
Please keep the comments coming. If possible, provide your name and contact information in case we have follow-up questions for you or to let you know directly what is being done about the issue you bring up.