AFMC Command News

Air Force leaders praise Tinker's efficiency, warfighter support

  • Published
  • By Micah Garbarino
  • 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  For two Air Force senior leaders who toured the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center here June 6, 2011, one word could sum up the success they saw: "partnership."

Undersecretary of the Air Force Erin Conaton and former OC-ALC commander Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, who currently serves as the Air Force deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, saw these partnerships first-hand during their visit to Tinker Air Force Base.

According to the leaders, they witnessed the "impressive" partnership with Boeing that has enabled the Block 40/45 E-3 Sentry upgrades, the partnership with the community that enabled the expansion of Tinker workloads into the former General Motors plant here, and the partnership between the ALC leaders, the union and the workforce that allows for continued process improvements in KC-135 Stratotanker, B-1 Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress aircraft maintenance.

"It's obvious that the success of Tinker is not only the result of our fabulous Airmen, but the community that supports them," said Ms. Conaton. "These Airmen should be a tremendous source of pride for this community."

For General Reno, the visit was a bit of a homecoming. He said he has remained very interested in all that goes on here and likes to refer to himself as one of Tinker's "alumni."

He said he was amazed by the changes that have taken place across the center in the two-and-a-half years since he served as the OC-ALC commander, from the demolition of outdated buildings, to the remodeled interior of the former GM plant.

"I see flow days at a record low on KC-135s," said General Reno. "I see engine work that's humming. I see a wing aggressive about getting the parts that they need and improvements that lay ahead of them. I see a workforce that's passionate about supporting the warfighter."

With an aging aircraft fleet, supporting the warfighter through maintenance is a vital mission and one that calls for increased efficiency, especially in light of the nation's current fiscal deficit, Ms. Conaton said.

"Within DoD, we're looking at making our operations as efficient as possible so that we can maintain every dollar going to the warfighter in the field," she said.

Ultimately, the best ideas for efficiency do not come from Washington, D.C., but rather from where the work is being done, General Reno added. Both leaders cited examples of efficiencies at Tinker in the B-1 high velocity maintenance program and the reduced KC-135 flow days resulting in increased production.

"Those kinds of examples should be inspirational to the rest of the Air Force as we try to find ways to become more efficient," said Ms. Conaton. "I commend the folks here and ask them to keep doing what they're doing."

Both leaders stressed the importance of the mission conducted here to the Airmen accomplishing the mission "down range." The Under Secretary said that when she visited Afghanistan recently, a key issue with nearly everyone she spoke to was aircraft availability.

General Reno agreed, adding that he was thrilled to hear that one of the program offices at Tinker sets the bar at six hours to respond to a call from the U.S. Central Command theater of operations.

"Day or night, weekend or holiday, within six hours, they'll have an answer back to the people down range," he said. "That's the kind of effort we need to support the joint and coalition team to win today's fight."

Ms. Conaton also stressed the importance of the improvements to the E-3 aircraft fleet.

"The Block 40/45 upgrades on the AWACS is an incredibly impressive thing," she said. "That capability is war-winning for us, and having that much of an upgrade is going to pay dividends for us whether in Afghanistan or Libya, or wherever we may find ourselves in the future."