Kadena team takes CSAF award at AFA convention

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  • By 18th Wing Public Affairs
WASHINGTON --  A dramatic turnaround in operations efficiency led the base Individual Protective Equipment Management Team to be named recipients of the Air Force Chief of Staff's Team Excellence Award during the Air Force Association's 22nd Annual Convention in Washington this week. 

The team was comprised of Kadena Airmen throughout the base including Chief Master Sgt. Teldra Jones, Senior Master Sgt. Daniel Ward, Master Sgts. Kenneth Blair, Dwayne Bailon, Manuel Anduha, Randall Maurer, Peter Adams and Marcus Hughes; Tech Sgts. Darris Wyatt and Edmund Burke; and Staff Sgts. Daisy Gumabon and Kevin Cumbie.

The team from units throughout Kadena topped 22 other nominees for the honor. Kadena's team was the only representative from Fifth Air Force and one of two from PACAF, of the 22 teams that were finalists.

According to Lt. Col. Douglas Dickerson, 18th Logistics Readiness Squadron commander, the individual protective equipment management team applied an 8-Step AFSO-21 Problem Solving Model and Back-to-Basics approach in redesigning Chemical Warfare Defense Ensemble storage and distribution process, optimally returning and centrally storing more than 7,000 C-1 bags.

They employed core supply practices; assigned stock room crew chiefs for dedicated maintenance of unit's C-1 bags and ability to swap-out expired assets to improve accountability and serviceability rating by 60 percent. The team increased the size of CWDE processing line and number of terminals to facilitate mass C-Bag recall. They developed a plan to disperse over 7,000 C-bags during elevated treat conditions within 48-hours of execution order, while reducing IPE customers in-processing, out-processing, deployment processing time to 10 minutes versus 45 minutes to 1 hour.

"Winning the award can be mostly attributed to the strong flight level leadership, where the initiative began, took root, and everyone at the individual level took ownership of turning the program around," Colonel Dickerson said. "The spring 2008 operational readiness inspection uncovered major deficiencies and rated the program unsatisfactory. New flight leadership committed to excellence, built a strong team where everyone had buy-in, and took the ball all the way full court for the slam dunk."

The Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy presented the award to the team. The team will return to Kadena Friday.