18th Wing IG keeps Airmen compliant

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Marcus Morris
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Inspection: that dreaded word that made everyone drop what they were doing and spend countless hours preparing the work area and books to pass.

Since October 2013, the inspections that were done every two years by inspector generals from major commands have been given over to each wing.

By allowing the wings to cover inspections, the inspectors are able to focus on improving mission effectiveness and balance resources and risks without the wasteful peaks and valleys of preparing for inspections.

"We used to have a two to three year cycle for inspections," said Tech. Sgt. Joshua Knepp, 18th Wing inspection team NCO in charge. "This gave people a lot of time and many would sweep the dirt under the rug and get in inspection order right before the teams would arrive."

The wing inspection generals have four main areas they look over; manning and resources, leading people, improving units and executing missions. Mission Focused Exercises have largely been about executing the mission, however, now there is a bigger push to incorporate the other three into the MFE as they are all related and needed for scenarios.

Also, with the new focus, MFEs are able to be tailored to correct past trends and fix deficiencies that the wing needed to work on. Units can still do internal training, but inspection scenarios will take priority.

"We want to change the wing's mind set," said Capt. Joseph Schmitt, 18th WG inspection planner. "I can write someone up for not putting their chemical gear on properly, but we would rather know why was it put on incorrectly and how do we fix it."

Since implementation of the new system, the wing inspection generals have completed more than five inspections and are always planning for the next one.

"Now that we are IG and are constantly monitoring the wing's readiness, we can create a more accurate picture," Schmitt said. "Every inspection and real-world event, we inspect them and it gets relayed to the Pacific Air Forces. They get to see all the data so when they come to inspect, they are just making sure we are policing ourselves."

When asked about what Airmen should do for this upcoming MFE Schmitt said, "We want Airmen to figure out, during the MFEs, if they are ready to go to war and if they aren't and to tell us why they aren't ready so we can address the issues and fix them. We need everyone's buy in to make the wing better."