VPP begins big project at Tinker Published July 22, 2008 By Brandice Armstrong Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., -- The Voluntary Protection Program Combined Wing Staff Group is on a mission. They're making improvements to Bldg. 3001. After receiving several requests to fix the dilapidated front parking lot, three VPP Combined Wing Staff Group volunteers set out July 10 to assess the lot. "This project is important to us as employees of the building, and to the Air Force base," said Col. William Simpson, VPP Combined Wing Staff Group volunteer. "There are some issues out there. We want to prevent trips, twisted ankles, and eliminate risks." Armed with orange reflector vests and maps of the parking lot, the volunteers walked the rows looking for tripping hazards, weather-worn holes, cracks and broken asphalt. Colonel Simpson said he expected an assessment of the parking lot to take several days. Once finished, the volunteers would turn their findings over to the 72nd Civil Engineering Directorate for follow-up and damage repair. Fixing the front parking lot is one of four projects the group plans to tackle at Bldg. 3001. The others include widening the parking lot entrances from Doors A to F, installing emergency telephones by the elevators and installing flashing lights at the two main crosswalks on the east side of the building. VPP is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration program designed to reduce work-related injuries and illnesses. In 2006, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld mandated the Air Force participate in the program to create a cooperative relationship between OSHA, management, union and employees, and ensure a better level of safety and health protection.