DVIDS – News – Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard unit doubles in measurement

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. – A singular Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard unit primarily based at Offutt Air Drive Base is doubling in measurement and mission, senior Nebraska governmental and navy leaders introduced Sept. 10, 2022.

The one hundred and seventieth Group – an revolutionary Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard group that has offered each full-time and part-time help to the Fifty fifth Wing for the previous 20 years within the areas of formal flight coaching, airfield operations, flight data, scheduling and different present operations and plans – is increasing into plane upkeep and intelligence help.

In accordance with Governor Pete Ricketts, the expansion is because of the vital work going down between the Energetic Air Drive’s Fifty fifth Wing and the Nebraska Air Guard’s one hundred and seventieth Group every day at Offutt Air Drive Base.

“For 20 years now, the one hundred and seventieth Group has been aiding the Fifty fifth Wing in quite a lot of methods from flight coaching to scheduling. That has helped the Fifty fifth Wing to have the ability to handle once they had personnel shortages…the one hundred and seventieth Group helps easy out that transition,” stated Ricketts. “Due to that nice work, we’re saying that the one hundred and seventieth Group goes to be increasing.”

Underneath a progress initiative that started in April, the one hundred and seventieth is including two further squadrons – the one hundred and seventieth Upkeep Help Squadron and the one hundred and seventieth Intelligence Help Squadron. The 2 new squadrons will primarily double the one hundred and seventieth Group’s present personnel authorization.

“That can create much more alternatives for the Nebraska Nationwide Guard to help right here on base,” Ricketts stated. “It additionally creates an thrilling alternative for lots of the Air Drive people who could also be finishing their phrases of service and need to keep right here in Nebraska as a result of we’ve the perfect place on the planet to reside proper right here. Should you be a part of the Nebraska Nationwide Guard you’ll be able to keep proper right here and proceed to do the good work on base.”

“So, it is a win, win, win for everyone,” the governor added.

Previous to the brand new reorganization, the one hundred and seventieth Group included roughly 80 fulltime and part-time Airmen assigned to both the Group headquarters, the 238th Fight Coaching Squadron or the one hundred and seventieth Operations Help Squadron. It has been stationed at Offutt since September 2002 by a novel Complete Drive partnership effort between the Energetic Air Drive and the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard.

Usually lauded by senior Air Drive leaders as “one of many Air Drive’s best-kept secrets and techniques,” the one hundred and seventieth Group-Fifty fifth Wing relationship has matured over the previous 20 years into one of the crucial efficient Complete Drive efforts in the US Air Drive. And as that fame grew, U.S. Air Drive and Air Nationwide Guard leaders started to search for new and revolutionary methods to extend the optimistic impacts of the one hundred and seventieth Group’s efforts.

Now, following roughly a decade’s efforts involving intensive idea improvement, proposals, planning and closing sanctioning by the Division of Air Drive, the expansion effort is lastly a actuality.

In accordance with U.S. Consultant Don Bacon who served as commander of the Fifty fifth Wing in the course of the early days of the partnership, rising the one hundred and seventieth Group into new areas of the wing merely is sensible.

“The solar by no means units on the Preventing Fifty fifth. They’ve the busiest (operational tempo) in your complete Air Drive… and we are able to’t do it with out the Guard,” stated Bacon following the announcement. “The Air Nationwide Guard makes it attainable.”

“The one hundred and seventieth Group augments this wing. It supplies instructors, it supplies 15 years of expertise in lots of circumstances in every particular person,” he stated. “So, whereas an lively Airman rotates, the Guard brings continuity, expertise and stability to this wing.”

Bacon stated his firsthand expertise whereas serving as commander of the Fifty fifth Wing strengthened his emotions how a lot the Guard has and may contribute to the wing’s international mission.

“I do know as commander in 2011 and 12 we flew each single day all around the world (and) that we couldn’t have achieved it with out the Guard,” he stated. “So, now we’re going to roll into this functionality an intelligence squadron and a upkeep squadron and hopefully much more down the street, which goes to strengthen the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission all through the world.

In accordance with Maj. Gen. Daryl Bohac, Nebraska adjutant common, the partnership between the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard and the Fifty fifth Wing is among the greatest in your complete U.S. Air Drive. On the coronary heart of that partnership, he added, is a particularly excessive stage of mutual belief between the Fifty fifth Wing and the one hundred and seventieth Group that has been developed and nurtured over the previous 20 years.

“It’s due to the belief gained by the efforts of the members of the one hundred and seventieth Group over the past 20 years that makes it attainable for this stuff to occur… not just for the Nebraska Nationwide Guard, not just for the Fifty fifth Wing, however for the US Air Drive and the nation,” Bohac stated.

From Humble Beginnings…

In accordance with Col. Wendy Squarcia, one hundred and seventieth Group commander, the brand new Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard growth is the direct results of the extraordinarily profitable Complete Drive effort between the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard and the Fifty fifth Wing that first started round 25 years in the past when a small group of Nebraska Air Guardsmen developed an thought that will permit the Nebraska Air Guard to assist the Fifty fifth Wing tackle periodic manpower shortages and lack of experience as lively Airmen routinely moved into and out of the group. Too typically, she stated, these lively responsibility rotations created a big lack of accessible experience or accessible expertise, which created vital impacts upon the Fifty fifth Wing’s capabilities in a number of areas.

To unravel this drawback, stated retired Maj. Gen. Rick Evans who was a member of that preliminary “Tiger Workforce” group, the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard proposed making a core group of extremely educated Air Nationwide Guard officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted Airmen who might present each continuity and excessive ranges of experience throughout the Fifty fifth Wing.

They might do that for a quite simple, however vital motive: Nationwide Guardsmen sometimes reside close to their models. As a result of they don’t seem to be topic to routine, periodic adjustments of assignments to new places, these extremely expert and skilled Guardsmen might stay in Nebraska and at Offutt Air Drive Base far longer than sometimes seen in lively Air Drive careers – thus making a bridge over the periodic reassignments of lively responsibility Airmen.

What began as Detachment 1 of the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard in September 2002, quickly grew right into a squadron-level after which group-level effort with the formal group of the one hundred and seventieth Group and its two squadrons in July 2007. As that partnership grew and expanded, the collaborative effort quickly attracted consideration of Air Drive leaders, each domestically and nationally.

“The partnership has been an amazing success,” Squarcia stated. “You’ll typically hear folks at Offutt say that you may’t inform the distinction between lively responsibility and Guard until you have a look at the colour of our patches. This can be a testomony to the seamless integration and partnerships between the Fifty fifth Wing and the one hundred and seventieth Group at Offutt Air Drive Base.”

“We’re utterly embedded into each side of the Fifty fifth Wing mission,” she added.

Col. Kristin Thompson, commander of the Fifty fifth Wing, agreed.

“After I look globally at our mission all around the globe, we couldn’t do what we do with out the help of (Col. Wendy Squarcia) and her crew,” stated Thompson. “Her crew is totally embedded and built-in into all the things that we do.”

“I simply couldn’t ask for something extra…(We’re) actually blessed to have teammates who’re companions in our international mission on daily basis,” she added.

Inside a couple of years of the institution of the Guard unit, information of the profitable partnership started to develop as the trouble continued so as to add vital accomplishments and milestones. Quickly, Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard and U.S. Air Drive leaders started to search for new methods to develop the trouble into different elements of the Fifty fifth Wing, thus offering even increased ranges of experience and continuity.

“As a result of this relationship has been so profitable, different organizations at Offutt requested for that very same longevity, experience and continuity that happens whenever you affiliate a Guard unit with an lively responsibility group,” Squarcia stated.

In accordance with Bohac, preliminary discussions started early within the partnership at Offutt Air Drive Base and infrequently revolved round forming a brand new upkeep help squadron into the one hundred and seventieth Group. Nonetheless, as a result of the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard already had a upkeep group positioned throughout the Lincoln-based one hundred and fifty fifth Air Refueling Wing, leaders had been initially resistant as a result of issues that staffing two separate plane upkeep models would possibly show too troublesome to perform in a state like Nebraska.

Nonetheless, because the organizations turned extra conversant in one another’s capabilities, Bohac stated it quickly turned evident that the necessity and the power to face up an Air Guard upkeep help unit at Offutt was not solely possible, however needed.

“That is an space the place we are able to have a robust affect on condition that the Fifty fifth Wing manages a number of (plane mannequin design programs,” he stated.

The upkeep idea was quickly adopted by different research that recognized intelligence help as one other space of attainable collaboration between the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard and the Fifty fifth Wing, stated Bohac. Offutt leaders and Nebraska’s congressional delegation endorsed these proposals, Bohac added, resulting in what turned a years-long effort to develop the one hundred and seventieth Group.

Rising the Mission

With the standing up of the brand new squadrons, Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard leaders are actually trying to find each certified Airmen and potential recruits to fill the models’ ranks. And never simply any Airmen, both.

“I need to discover these individuals who actually need to make a distinction,” stated Lt. Col. Sam Schneider, a member of the one hundred and seventieth Group who’s now the brand new chief of Upkeep Operations and charged with forming the brand new one hundred and seventieth Upkeep Help Squadron from scratch. “The entire mission of the one hundred and seventieth Upkeep Help Squadron shall be to help the Fifty fifth Upkeep Group. I need to ensure that the Fifty fifth Upkeep Group succeeds. If we are able to put extremely motivated, extremely profitable folks into this new squadron, I do know that we are able to make that occur.”

As soon as the unit is totally stood up in roughly three years, the one hundred and fifty fifth Upkeep Help Squadron will include 45 part-time and a 19 full-time positions representing a large cross-section of the varied upkeep skillsets throughout the Fifty fifth Upkeep Group, stated Senior Grasp Sgt. Kyle Eddy, Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard Recruiting and Retention senior enlisted chief. The unit may also have a wide selection of navy ranks, from senior airman as much as senior grasp sergeant.

“Consider this as a small cross-section of the Fifty fifth Upkeep Group,” Eddy stated. “Nearly all the (Air Drive Specialty Codes) throughout the Fifty fifth Upkeep Group shall be included throughout the new one hundred and seventieth Upkeep Help Squadron.

These skillsets will embody Airmen educated in training and coaching, particular built-in instrument and flight management programs, fabrication, particular built-in communication/navigation/mission programs, fuels, particular mission plane upkeep, plane electrical and environmental programs and plane upkeep

The brand new one hundred and seventieth Intelligence Help Squadron shall be equally staffed with Airmen educated within the big selection of intelligence specialties represented within the Fifty fifth Wing, stated Senior Grasp Sgt. Anthony Whitfield, senior enlisted chief for the brand new one hundred and seventieth ISS. These will embody all supply intelligence analysts, digital alerts analysts, communications alerts analysts, cryptologic language analysts, cryptologic analysts and reporters, an intelligence officer.

Whitfield stated these positions had been recognized by a collaborative effort between the Fifty fifth Wing and the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard. “Our active-duty counterparts within the Fifty fifth Intelligence Help Squadron recognized areas the place they’ve skilled shortfalls in manning, coaching, expertise or retention,” Whitfield stated. “The one hundred and seventieth Group then decided what positions can be practicable for the Guard.”

The purpose, stated Schneider, is to construct two new squadrons able to offering much-needed day-to-day help to help the Fifty fifth Wing in sustaining its operational capabilities, even when it’s in a interval of excessive turnover of lively responsibility personnel.

The affect that including these positions can have is critical.

“The one hundred and seventieth serves as a kind of shock-absorber for the Fifty fifth Wing,” stated Schneider. By offering continuity throughout these periodic occasions when the group’s lively responsibility Airmen are shifting between bases, leaving the service or attending skilled navy faculties, Schneider stated the one hundred and seventieth is ready to assist the Fifty fifth Wing proceed to meet its operational and coaching necessities at a particularly excessive stage.

The idea has already been confirmed throughout the coaching and operational help capabilities, Schneider stated. He stated he imagine the identical will maintain true because it now enters the plane upkeep and intelligence help arenas.

Whitfield agrees.

“During the last 20 years, the Offutt-Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard relationship has been repeatedly pointed to because the mannequin for Complete Drive integration,” he stated. “Increasing the one hundred and seventieth Group to incorporate an (intelligence help squadron) will prolong and strengthen that relationship, rising total manning, continuity and mission experience. The Guard can retain active-duty Airmen who want to proceed to serve within the native space relatively than transfer once more or depart the service.”

“Our intent is to not poach people from these (active-duty) models, however relatively to ‘catch’ members who already intend to separate,” Whitfield stated. “This fashion we achieve totally certified members, whereas Workforce Offutt retains their expertise.”

The one hundred and seventieth Group is in a position to do that, stated Squarcia, by giving highly-trained Airmen – who won’t in any other case keep at Offutt Air Drive Base or the Air Drive – new units of choices enabling them to proceed to serve within the navy whereas additionally being able to stay within the native space, pursue faculty educations or start new civilian careers on the identical time.

“The success of those initiatives are vital to the general success of the one hundred and seventieth Group and the Fifty fifth Wing,” Squarcia stated. “Including Guard help into an lively responsibility group helps preserve present, certified and educated consultants right here and provides to the continuity of the Fifty fifth Wing.”

There’s an operational element to the trouble as effectively, Squarcia stated. Airmen who serve within the one hundred and seventieth Group are additionally accessible to serve on deployments as effectively.

“We will doubtlessly add to the deployment pool, which might reduce the burden on our lively responsibility Airmen,” she added. “The Wing and the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard are extraordinarily excited concerning the future mission success of the one hundred and seventieth Intelligence Help Squadron and the one hundred and seventieth Upkeep Help Squadron. Including further Guard personnel and manpower will solely proceed to reinforce the partnership right here within the one hundred and seventieth Group and Fifty fifth Wing.”

The idea has already been confirmed throughout the coaching and operational help capabilities, Schneider stated. He imagine the identical will maintain true because it now enters the plane upkeep and intelligence help arenas.

Persevering with to Serve Nearer to Dwelling

Senior Grasp Sgt. James Westerdale is an efficient instance of the various advantages that this partnership has introduced each to people and the organizations concerned. The senior enlisted chief for the Air Guard’s 238th Coaching Help Squadron, Westerdale joined the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard after serving for greater than 21 years within the lively Air Drive. By becoming a member of the Guard, he stated he was in a position to proceed to serve, achieve precious expertise and help the Fifty fifth Wing’s vital strategic missions.

“I’m a unicorn by all requirements,” Westerdale stated, “however I felt like I nonetheless had extra to provide… I felt like this was a superb residence.”

Westerdale lately joined Schneider within the effort to construct the brand new one hundred and seventieth Upkeep Help Squadron as the brand new unit’s senior enlisted point-of-contact. Westerdale stated he and Schneider are working carefully with the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard’s recruiting and retention drive to get the phrase out concerning the new unit and the alternatives it’s bringing to the area. He added that the purpose is to construct a unit made up with a wholesome combine of recent enlistees, present members of the Air Guard and lively responsibility Airmen trying to transition into the Guard.

“We’re in search of folks, no matter the place they arrive from, who need to give again to the navy, to their communities, to their state,” Westerdale stated. “We’re in search of these individuals who nonetheless have one thing left within the tank who need to proceed to serve and to contribute.”

Schneider agreed, saying the rationale he first joined the one hundred and seventieth Group from lively responsibility was that he needed the power to serve whereas additionally remaining near the identical area he had grown up in.

“One of many neat issues concerning the one hundred and seventieth and what means probably the most to me is that I’m from the realm. (By becoming a member of the one hundred and seventieth Group) it offered me a chance to remain native. I can nonetheless help my state and help my nation, be a part of the navy… but additionally I don’t have to maneuver my household so typically.”

Schneider stated he’s in search of comparable sorts of Airmen with comparable targets and aspirations. “(We’re in search of) anyone who appreciates the place, appreciates the mission and appreciates the situation… I need to discover these individuals who actually need to make a distinction.”

Whitfield stated he’s in search of comparable Airmen to fill the ranks of the brand new one hundred and seventieth Intelligence Help Squadron. “We’re in search of motivated people – each prior service and new to the navy – who’re fascinated with being a part of the thrilling legacy of standing up a unit, and who will positively develop our partnership with the lively responsibility right into a profitable future.”

Nonetheless constructing two new Air Drive squadrons from scratch is something however simple. In actual fact, say Schneider, Westerdale and Eddy, it’s extraordinarily uncommon.

“It’s an once-in-a-lifetime profession alternative,” stated Westerdale. “It’s not one thing that occurs on daily basis. So that you don’t essentially have historical past in your facet, particularly throughout the state. And looking for somebody who has gone by that is virtually non-existent.”

“It’s very thrilling. Concurrently, it’s nerve-racking whenever you begin to see the scope of how massive of a venture that is,” stated Schneider, admitting that he is aware of there are numerous eyes targeted on the efforts to develop the one hundred and seventieth Group into these new missions. “It’s a little overwhelming, but it surely’s additionally an amazing honor to assist stand this up.”

Due to the dimensions and the individuality of the trouble, the Nebraska Air Nationwide Guard and Fifty fifth Wing leaders spent years creating and implementing plans designed to get the models began on the best foot, stated Eddy. That included a months-long effort to develop the Air Guard’s one hundred and fifty fifth Upkeep Group in Lincoln past 100%, understanding that members of that group might search to switch into the one hundred and seventieth Upkeep Help Squadron within the close to future. The one hundred and fifty fifth Upkeep Group ended the final fiscal 12 months at 103 p.c of its licensed energy due to that effort, Eddy added.

Eddy stated Air Guard recruiters have additionally put added emphasis into recruiting folks into the 2 new models. That effort contains the Guard’s in-service recruiter stationed at Offutt Air Drive Base, who’s already speaking with Airmen day by day concerning the new alternatives which are coming quickly. Eddy stated these preliminary discussions with potential unit members have gone effectively, including that the concept of serving at Offutt Air Drive Base as a Nebraska Air Nationwide Guardsman has been “effectively obtained.”

“It’s going to be a long-term venture,” Eddy stated, including that recruiters already had a number of folks prepared to maneuver into the brand new upkeep help squadron on April 1. “We really feel like we’re in a superb place to help this effort. The truth that we took the state to over 103 p.c by the top of the final fiscal 12 months was an incredible step. And now we’ve bought the best folks in the best positions. We now have lots of people there who need to put folks into the Guard.”

“It’s sport on,” Eddy added.

Squarcia agreed, saying she’s excited for the long run because the one hundred and seventieth Group grows and continues to help the Fifty fifth Wing and its missions in repeatedly evolving methods.

“The partnership between the Fifty fifth Wing and the one hundred and seventieth Group is a mannequin for Complete Drive success,” Squarcia stated. “In Might 2021, a Complete Drive well being evaluation was carried out by (the Division of the Air Drive). The organizations obtained the best scores to this point, and the evaluation crew recognized 5 greatest practices.”

“The Complete Drive partnership (between the one hundred and seventieth Group and Fifty fifth Wing) have been the gold commonplace for 20 years and can proceed to turn out to be even stronger as we develop the one hundred and seventieth Group into intelligence and upkeep.”