HomeNewsArticle Display

Sharing lessons learned

  • Published
  • By Micah Garbarino
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., --  The Army's top Soldier in the Arkansas National Guard made a visit to Tinker to interface with officials at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, to learn about the Voluntary Protection Program and how it was implemented here.

Maj. Gen. William D. Wofford, Arkansas National Guard Adjutant General, other high-ranking Arkansas Guard officials, safety, aviation and facility managers, were briefed by a VPP team led by Mr. John Over, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center's executive director.

In brief, the Voluntary Protection Program encourages cooperative workplace relationships between employees and management to promote safety. Within the program, anyone can point out safety hazards or unsafe practices and working groups come up with solutions to those problems.

"The visit was a great success. In the aircraft, on the way back, everyone had positive comments about the facilities and military, civilians, and union folks who are integrating VPP across the board at Tinker," said Maj. Keith Moore, the public affairs officer for the Arkansas National Guard.

The Guard's interest in VPP began with the opening of a new Army Aviation Support Facility at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Ark. The facility has been open for more than a year. It is a "huge" maintenance building for the Blackhawk helicopter, and can accommodate 21 aircraft. The Guard hopes to influence the culture of the new facility.

"We are in the process of upgrading a lot of our programs. The best time to do that is as we're (settling in) to our new facility," said Major Moore.

The Guard knew they wanted to implement VPP, but they did not want to "re-invent the wheel" or make the same mistakes that others had made while implementing their programs.

"We went out and interviewed other National Guard units and time and again it came back that Tinker was doing exceptionally well with their program. So, we decided to make a visit," Major Moore said.

The team learned valuable lessons.

"They shared their timeline with us, their obstacles. This is not an overnight process for full implementation, but there are great benefits," said Major Moore. "This has to be a command program, but it is so important to have buy-in from the union, the employee groups and the working groups."