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Year of challenges, success for men and women of 72nd ABW

  • Published
  • By Micah Garbarino
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  If the Air Force had a time machine, no one in the 72nd Air Base Wing would want to go back to April 2013.

Accomplishing major achievements in the face of workforce reductions, sequestration cuts, furloughs, a government shutdown, major inspections and ongoing organizational changes has not been easy, but the men and women of the 72nd Air Base Wing -- the Wildcatters -- have continually stepped up to face challenges and succeed.

"Going back a year and looking forward, you'd say it was impossible to make everything work. 'Something has got to fail.' But here we are a year later and there has not been a single case of mission failure at Tinker AFB, for us or our mission partners. I think it's a tribute to the servant leadership of the people in the air base wing," said Col. Christopher Azzano, 72nd ABW and Tinker Installation commander.

Supporting 45 mission partners -- with 26,000 military, civilian and contract workers -- and providing care and services for 45,000 retirees and nearly 10,000 military dependents, is the primary function of the total force Airmen in the 72nd ABW.

"We understand our purpose," the colonel said. "We know why we're here. We're a support wing that enables every mission and every organization at Tinker AFB. Nobody goes anywhere or does anything without us, but we also know that without our mission partners we become irrelevant."

In April 2013, sequestration hit. The wing was asked to make a year's worth of drastic cuts in less than six months. Civilian force-shaping measures went into effect. AFMC had also just reorganized itself into five centers, breaking a long paradigm for the command and Tinker, the "organizational turmoil" it caused was beginning to produce results.

That's when the fiscal storm was dwarfed by something much worse, an EF-5 tornado that tore through nearby Moore, home to many Team Tinker members.

"The tornado took a large emotional toll on our community and the Tinker AFB family, but the ABW really stepped up to help our families and displaced community members in any way we could," Colonel Azzano said.

As the debris settled and life began to return to normal outside the gates, inside the gates sequestration cuts continued to force tough decisions.

"We saw reductions in base services that affected quality of life on our installation - from our dining facility and fitness centers, to transportation for our Airmen and the inability to complete infrastructure upgrades. We worked very hard to preserve quality of life as best we could," the colonel said.

Sequestration cuts also resulted in involuntary furloughs for many civilian employees that began in July and continued for six weeks, restricting employees to no more than 32 hours per week with no overtime or after-hours work.

"Furloughs were every bit as damaging to morale as to our mission," Colonel Azzano said. "It's hard to quantify the full effect but it went far beyond the lost time."

During this difficult time the 72nd ABW Communications Directorate completed a migration of its technology services, user profiles, accounts and servers to the centralized "AFNET." This process continued for months. The Communications Directorate also completed a Command Cyber Readiness Inspection - and achieved the highest score in the Air Force to date.

Throughout the year, 72nd ABW units were preparing for a Unit Effectiveness Inspection scheduled for November 2013, and Tinker mission partners prepared for their own Unit Compliance Inspections, Consolidated Unit Inspections and Logistics Compliance Assessment Program.

Then, on Oct. 1, 2013, without an approved budget, the government shut down, sending many civilian workers home yet again.

"I remember sitting at my desk late on Sept. 30 saying, 'Really? Is this going to happen?' " Colonel Azzano said. "We lost a week of productivity but when we came back, we pulled out all the stops. The team was incredible in their ability to balance the day-to-day challenges of base support with inspection readiness."

When the inspectors showed up, the ABW "hit it out of the park," Colonel Azzano said.
"We were rated a 'Highly Effective Organization,'" he said. "If you look at each of the graded categories, the number rated 'highly effective' in the 72 ABW still exceeds every other wing inspected in the Air Force under the new UEI construct."

Perhaps the best example of the wing, Team Tinker and the community pulling together to enable success was the recent 2014 Star Spangled Salute Air Show and Open House.

"Never in a million years did we think we'd have an air show after a government shutdown. Normally we have about 18 months to prepare. This time we had five months. But we embraced the opportunity, got excited about it, and put forth a tremendous effort," Colonel Azzano said. "We had roughly 3,000 volunteers. We spent less than half of what we've spent for previous air shows. We had tremendous community partners. We had record attendance and everyone had a wonderful time. It was a huge success."

Colonel Azzano believes that despite future challenges, there is more success on the horizon. There has to be, because despite military manpower reductions and a budget reduced by 40 percent since 2010, failure is not an option.

"If you work in the ABW, what you do every day is important," the colonel said. "I want people to live by our 'Count on Us' motto. Through years of austerity we have seen cuts to the point where every single person is vital. If someone is not doing their job, we notice it. We must make the very best of the resources we have to support the missions at Tinker."

The AFSC Way and the AFSC Leadership model has helped the ABW posture itself for future success, focusing on leveraging People, Resources and Processes and practicing Continuous Process Improvement.

"Don't expect to get more people. Don't expect to get more money. We have to work smarter, not harder by being more efficient and more cost effective. It's the AFSC Way, and the only way for us to get the job done with fewer people and fewer resources, focusing on innovation and organizational improvement--getting better at what we do," Colonel Azzano said. "We've already achieved great success in some areas, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. And our people are the vital resource that will make it happen. It's amazing how far people will go when they're invested in an organization doing important things every day with team members--Wingmen--who truly care about eachother."