13th Air Force Airman named contracting's best

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Toni Kemper
  • 13th Air Force Public Affairs
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii --  A 13th Air Force Airman is the Air Force's best contracting noncommissioned officer for 2006. Tech. Sgt. James Black, chief of the contracting division, Headquarters, 13th Air Force, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, was presented the Air Force Contracting 2006 Special Recognition Award, noncommissioned officer category, in Washington D.C. on April 27, as announced to his unit during a commander's call May 31. 

What made the New Hampshire native from Hillsboro stand out among all contracting NCO specialists in the Air Force was his intense focus on providing contracting support to the theater warfighting mission according to Colonel Charles Smiley, director of 13th AF Installations and Mission Support. 

In his current position, Sergeant Black is primarily responsible for contingency and deliberate planning for contracting functions throughout the Pacific region, which is comprised of more than 50 percent of the earth's surface and almost 60 percent of the world's population. This includes assessing economic factors, such as cultural differences, market analysis, business practices, etc., for countries in the region to provide the combatant commander recommendations of their impact on the mission with respect to the contracting function.

Sergeant Black has been with 13th AF since its inception as a warfighting headquarters, known as Kenney Headquarters, in September 2005--an experience he relishes. 

"As part of a newly defined organization, we aren't told what to do, we create the function. Building a contracting division in a warfighting headquarters [which was designated a Component-Numbered Air Force in October 2006] was an incredible experience. We made history, and we had to shift paradigms to do it," said the 13-year Air Force veteran. 

"We've integrated a joint approach to contingency contracting in the Pacific by leveraging joint service agreements and manpower." 

He attributes winning the Air Force-level award to the coordinated contracting response to regional disasters such as mudslides in the Philippines in February 2006 and the earthquake in Indonesia in June 2006. From Hickam, Sergeant Black worked to organize and control contingency contracting officers supporting the disaster relief missions. 

"These events tested our planning ... our ability to work together as a cohesive team by implementing processes based on previous lessons learned. We replaced ad hoc response procedures with ones that worked," said Sergeant Black. 

The award-winning, Hillsboro-Dearing High School-graduate is two classes from earning his master's in business administration and plans to stay another 15 years in the Air Force "as long as he's still having fun." 

"The Air Force is a virtual goldmine of opportunity," said Sergeant Black. "You just have to take advantage of it."