Travis Tailwind: Oct. 28, 2022

TRAVIS TAILWIND

Airmen and Air Force firefighters put out a fire during a live-burn training at Altus Air Force Base, Okla., Oct. 12. At the fire department training grounds, there is a small model of an aircraft which is used for live-burn training.

Innovation in 60th Maintenance Squadron moves Travis forward

TRAVIS AIR FORCE

BASE — The 60th Mainte nance Squadron success fully created a C-5 mixing chamber repair from a com ponent manufactured on the Stratasys Fortus F900 3-D printer, a first for Travis Air Force Base.

Around 4 a.m. Oct. 12, the Metals Technology shop received a C-5 fuel mix ing chamber that sustained damage to the flange at the alternate air valve. The damage exceeded the tradi tional local repair capabili ties and no replacement part was immediately available.

“Our departments worked together. Metals Tech came up with the great idea in the first place,” said Jeffrey Bruns, 60th Main tenance Squadron aircraft metals technology section chief, as he explained fur ther the ingenuity behind the repair.

Kyle Parr, 60th Main tenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance su pervisor, introduced the idea that a bond form could be manufactured on the in dustrial strength polymer 3-D printer. He proposed the unique polymer material

Staff Sgt. Marquis Russell courtesy photo U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Jayden Bragg, 60th Maintenance Squadron aircraft metals technician apprentice, examines a C-5 Galaxy mixing chamber repair component at Travis Air Force Base, Oct. 13.

has the airworthiness char acteristics necessary to be used on aircraft.

After collaboration with Aircraft Metals Technology, Aircraft Structural Mainte nance and the on-site C-5 li aison engineer, the decision was made to leave the hat sleeve in place, using it not only as a bond form for new fiberglass material, but as stiffening support for in creased part longevity.

By 9 a.m., the engineering

TRAVIS TAILWIND

AMC leaders to present Gallant

Travis

Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE — Air Mobility Command has announced commanders will present 96 Distinguished Fly ing Crosses, 12 Bronze Star Med als and one Gallant Unit Citation to mobility airmen who supported Operation Allies Refuge.

The 621st Contingency Re sponse Group will receive the Gal lant Unit Citation for the actions its airmen took to rapidly repair and run airfield operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport while surrounded by hostile forc es, enabling success of the opera tion.

Of the 96 Distinguished Fly ing Crosses, seven will be awarded with the “V” device for valor, rec ognizing heroism beyond what is normally expected while engaged in direct combat conditions. An additional 74 Distinguished Fly ing Crosses will be awarded with the “C” device for combat. Two of the 12 Bronze Star Medals will be awarded with the “V” device.

“The world witnessed histo ry during that airlift, borne on the shoulders of mobility heroes,” said Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command. “This recognition is long overdue for what our heroes did during those historic 17 days.”

The Distinguished Flying Crosses and Bronze Star Med als were among 350 additional

Staff Sgt. Dennis Hoffman/U.S. Air Force file U.S. airmen assigned to the 821st Contingency Response Group deploy to support operations in Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2021.

individual awards approved for actions in support of Operation Al lies Refuge. The decorations were finalized after a September awards board held by Air Forces Central Command that considered the el evated level of awards for the actions of hundreds of airmen who participated in the largest non combatant air evacuation opera tion in U.S. history.

“A mix of (Mobility Air Forces) and (Operation Allies Ref uge) experts led to award submis sions being addressed thoroughly and with the mindset of recogniz ing actions in a way that will endure while preserving reverence for our most hallowed medals. Consequently, some submissions

were upgraded or downgraded to reflect the distinct contribution of the airman or team,” said Brig. Gen. Gerald Donohue, Air Mobil ity Command’s deputy director of Strategy, Plans, Requirements and Programs, who served as the award board president.

Donohue previously served as the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing commander at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, during Operation Allies Refuge, through which most evac uees were processed on the way to their final destinations.

“It’s important to note that we considered the contributions of crews as teams, and in the end, there was no disparity in award determi

CONTENTS

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ON THE COVER

Chief Master Sgt. Sue Thompson and a firefighter from the 97th Civil Engineer Squadron, put out a fire during a live-burn training at Altus Air Force Base, Okla., Oct. 12.

Senior Airman Kayla Christenson/U.S. Air Force

Heide Couch

Sonopalooza conference offers hands-on experience at DGMC

Beyond the Board: new AI innovations in digital scheduling

Travis pilot helps roll out Puckboard app after LNU fire evacuation of base

Senior Airman Ashley Thrash DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE AI ACCELERATOR

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Pilots and mobility personnel around the workforce depend on sched ules as their backbone to en sure the mission continues; flight scheduling, mission track ing, leave, currency, exercises, events.

Until a few years ago, sched uling was manually drafted on a whiteboard. It was up to a few people to move around “pucks” and determine when people could fly, schedule needed train ing and deconflict everyone’s schedule.

Squadrons saw a need to in novate and create a way to cut down on the time and resourc es required to support the heavy lifting of scheduling. This is what led to the creation of Puckboard. The Puckboard application dig itizes this physical whiteboard that contains a highly collabora tive and complicated process.

Puckboard originally began as a Defense Innovation Unit effort to connect units across the joint force tasked to tackle scheduling from different ser vices and various communities. After receiving initial funding, a combined team from the 15th Wing in Hawaii and the U.S. Marine Corps set out to begin ad dressing this problem through software.

Maj. Eric Robinson, Devel opment Chief for Artificial In telligence Assisted Scheduling for the Department of the Air Force-Massachusetts Institute

of Technology AI Accelerator, is currently supporting the Puck board team.

“One of the big pieces of work we’ve been doing, especially led by the AI Accelerator, is real ly working on the explainabili ty and workflow,” Robinson said. “How do we simultaneously capture a concept of value and com municate that back to the users, not just overwrite what schedul ers want, how do we build an in telligent recommendation sys tem that captures the reality that scheduling is a uniquely collab orative effort taking into account interests from all hundred to two hundred people in a squadron.”

Puckboard has gone through many iterations from prototype through scaled production ap plication, and is still being im proved to enhance the user experience. The AI-Assisted Op timization of Training Schedules research team has been able to translate the nuances of the military domain to targeted stake holders and interface with tech nically minded users.

One of the current phan toms, 2nd Lt. Luke Kenworthy, contributed to an important re search advancement during his previous internship at the AI Ac celerator. He, along with oth er MIT researchers, developed Neural Network Integer Pro gram Coefficient Extraction, or NICE, a new technique that combines reinforcement learn ing and integer programming to tackle the problem of robust scheduling.

Hun Chustine Minoda/U.S. Air Force photos

Airmen assigned to the 60th Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron, practice abdominal ultrasound procedures during Sonopalooza 2022 at David Grant USAF Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, Oct. 20. Sonopalooza 2022 is the third Annual Ultrasound Radiology Resident Conference at DGMC. It aimed to educate radiology residents on the mechanics of ultrasound machines and give them hands-on experience with scanning and performing biopsies.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Shannon Gaffney, left, 60th Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron staff radiologist and chief of breast imaging, and Capt. (Dr.) Bradley McCann, 60th MDTS radiology resident, practice breast biopsies using chicken breast during Sonopalooza 2022 at David Grant USAF Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, Oct. 20.

First USAF female officer attends Thai staff college

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airman,

Padoemthontaweekij,

Force

Command

Staff College, Oct.

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The Royal Thai Air Force opened its Air Command and Staff College eligibility policy to female attendees in an effort to promote diversity and inclu sion and have sent an additional five Royal Thai Air Force female officers to join Padoemthon taweekij, an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force.

The Department of the Air Force has a long history of sending male and female airmen and guardians to learn at schools hosted by allies and partners, and vice versa, to help build deep and enduring relationships.

“Leaving talent on the table

means we’re leaving lethality on the table, and we’re not about to do that. I’m proud that we could take this step forward together with the Royal Thai Air Force – a significant step toward strength ening the enduring U.S.-Thailand alliance,” said Under Secre tary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones.

Jones directed a review of gender-specific policies in 2021 and as a result, the Depart ment of the Air Force identified the opportunity to send female officers to the Royal Thai Air Force Air Command and Staff College. The alliance between the U.S. and Thailand is built on 200 years of friendship and root ed in strong people-to-people ties. Professional military education and personnel exchanges al low U.S. and Thai officers to de velop connections that provide mutual benefits well into the fu ture.

The U.S. Air Force developed a close partnership with the Roy al Thai Air Force by previously

sending male officers to the Air Command and Staff College and will further strengthen that rela tionship by sending Padoemth ontaweekij.

“I am excited about the op portunity to learn and integrate with the Royal Thai Air Force, and to be a part of a momentous step forward in the integration and representation of women

leadership and diversity in this bilateral military partnership,” Padoemthontaweekij said.

This is not the first time the Department of the Air Force has sent female officers to work with the Royal Thai Air Force. The Department of the Air Force Military Personnel Exchange Program sent its first female of ficer to support a Royal Thai Air

Force maintenance squadron in February 2019. Currently, the U.S. Air Force has four exchange officers with the Royal Thai Air Force, including three female of ficers.

Since 1970, the Royal Thai Air Force has sent 128 male Thai of ficers to complete Air Command

and Staff College and Air War College in-residence training at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala

in 2023.

The Department of the Air Force’s own gender integration efforts have led to more effective and capable Air and Space Forc es, and feed into the broader U.S. Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security. An Air Force Women,

Staff Sgt. Jessica Avallone/U.S. Air Force

A C-130H Hercules tail that belongs to the Royal Thai Air Force 601st Squadron sits on a flightline at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Aug. 11.

New policy benefits noise-exposed service members

Larine Barr HEARING CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

A Department of Defense poli cy will soon require hearing protec tor fit testing for DoD personnel who are exposed to certain noise lev els, according to the Defense Health Agency Hearing Center of Excel lence.

The change is an update to De partment of Defense Instruction 6055.12 “Hearing Conservation Pro gram” and is expected to be pub lished by the end of 2022.

Hearing protector fit testing measures the amount of noise re duction, or attenuation, a hearing protector provides while it is being worn. This measurement is referred to as a Personal Attenuation Rating, or PAR.

The new requirement calls for initial hearing protector fit-testing

for those who have document ed noise exposure greater than or equal to 95 decibels over an eighthour time-weighted average, and who are enrolled in a service hear ing conservation program, said U.S. Air Force Col. Samuel Spear, chief of the Hearing Center of Excellence, a branch of the Research Portfolio Management Division of the De fense Health Agency Research and Engineering Directorate.

Spear said fit testing will also be required in these situations:

n A service member tests posi tive for a significant threshold shift, otherwise known as hearing loss, in a periodic audiogram.

n Physical changes to a person’s ear canal cause a poor fit of their as signed hearing protection devices.

n The primary type of fitted hearing protection device is no lon ger available to the employee.

n An “early warning” hear ing loss occurs. This happens when a person’s hearing worsens by 15 decibels at any of the following frequencies: 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 hertz.

Spear said, however, that these are the minimum criteria for hear ing protector fit testing in the DoD and the service components may have different requirements.

“Each service component may institute more stringent require ments to better meet the needs of their respective hearing conserva tion program,” he said.

Testing protective equipment to ensure readiness

“Hearing protector fit-testing contributes to service member readiness, because it can mit

Larine Barr/MHS Communications

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Murphy demonstrates a type of fittest equipment used to measure the amount of noise reduction a person is getting from their specific hearing protector.

igate the occurrence of Signifi cant Threshold Shifts and hear ing-related fitness for duty evaluations,” Spear said.

The testing is also accurate.

“Hearing protector fit testing is a proven way to quantitively measure the amount of noise re duction a person is getting from their specific hearing protector,” said Dr. Theresa Schulz, pre vention section lead at the Hear ing Center of Excellence, who is heading up efforts to announce

and guide the policy change across the DoD. “Fit testing can be used to determine if the per son is not achieving adequate protection, and it can remedy the problem through training or finding another type of hearing protector.”

There are many benefits to conducting fit testing, which is recommended by the Occupa tional Safety and Health Ad ministration as a best practice in hearing conservation. Ac cording to Schulz, fit testing can identify workers at risk for noise-induced hearing loss due to inadequate hearing device fit, help personnel select the right

device for their work environ ment, train workers to proper ly fit and use hearing protectors, and reduce noise-induced hear ing loss for service members en rolled in hearing conservation programs.

Schulz said the Hearing Cen ter of Excellence will distribute information to affected organiza tions on how to comply with im plementing it before the updated DoD policy is published.

“We’re here to help and an swer any questions the servic es may have to enable a success ful launch and implementation of this new requirement,” Schulz said.

The Department of Defense uses wireless audiometry as a convenient hearing testing method both on the battlefield and in clinical and nonclinical settings available to all service members. It has expanded as the new standard for testing.

Department of Defense photo

More partners sign on to hire military spouses

C. Todd Lopez DOD NEWS

The Defense Department has signed up an additional 70 gov ernment organizations, nonprof its and private sector companies to participate in its Military Spouse Employment Partner ship program. With the new ad ditions, there are now more than 600 such organizations commit ted to recruiting, hiring, promot ing and retaining military spouses.

Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wel comed the new companies into the partnership during an in duction ceremony at the threeday MSEP Engage 2022 event in Northern Virginia.

“I want to welcome and con gratulate and thank the more than 70 new employer part ners who have joined the Mili tary Spouse Employment Part nership here today,” Cisneros said. “Today we’re celebrating your commitment and induction, and this marks the culmination of a robust vetting process, all of which clearly demonstrated that you, the class of 2023, are truly committed.”

Since the Military Spouse Employment Partnership pro gram began in 2011, the pro gram’s partnering efforts have helped connect more than 250,000 military spouses to em ployment opportunities across all industry sectors, Cisneros said.

“You’ve joined an elite group that opens you to the military spouse community and the di verse skills and talents that they offer,” he said. “With these latest inductions we’re up to more than 600 total MSEP partners since we started this program back in 2011.”

Additionally, more than 40,000 military spouses were

reported as hired by Military Spouse Employment Partner ship partners since last October, Cisneros said.

“[That’s] our largest hiring level ever,” Cisneros said. “This is a testament to all of you, our enduring and new MSEP part ners, and I can’t wait to see those numbers in 2023.”

This week during the annu al Military Spouse Employment Partnership Engage 2022 event, new and long-time Military Spouse Employment Partner ship partners met for orientation sessions where they discussed how new partners can engage with the military spouse com munity. During the second day of the event, partners engaged in networking and breakout ses sions to focus on areas such as recruiting military spouses, un derstanding the challenges that military spouses face, and mak ing companies more friendly to military spouses.

This year’s event also fea tured, for the first time, a third day where Military Spouse Em ployment Partnership partners met with military spouses seek ing employment.

Military families, like most ci vilian families, need both part ners working in order to make ends meet. Because of the num ber of moves a family must en dure over the course of a mili tary career, it’s often a challenge for a service member’s civilian partner to find sustained, mean ingful employment, said Patricia M. Barron, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy.

“Our unemployment rate kind of hovers around 21%, which is far above the civilian rate, as many of you know,” Bar ron said.

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Through the AI Accelera tor’s research advancements and from extensive user feed back over Puckboard’s lifespan, improvements to the application have made Puckboard a plat form that more and more users around the workforce will want to use.

“You shouldn’t wait until you have a perfect product to release

it,” Robinson said. “If we had waited until we had a perfect product, Puckboard would not exist today and 20,000 people would still be scheduling with white boards or spreadsheets.”

Capt. Kelsey Dees, current ly assigned to the 618th Air Op erations Center as their air lift recovery division chief, is a C-17 pilot by trade. She encour aged her previous shop toward utilizing Puckboard and drove them away from the antiquat ed methods of an old whiteboard with physical pucks.

“A week after I showed up, there was a big fire at Travis (Air Force Base) and the entire base had to evacuate,” Dees said. “Due to not being in the shop, I wasn’t able to see the aircrew as signments, so I took a screenshot of our physical whiteboard be fore I left and I used this gap as a way to roll out a digital schedul ing tool at Travis.”

Dees was the change agent in her office to drive her unit at Travis toward using Puckboard. She was able to invest in the ap plication early and provided

needed end user feedback to the Puckboard team, resulting in a better product for the mobility community.

“Whenever we are dealing with people and the uniqueness of what we care about and how operations exist,” Robinson said. “You have to take that into con sideration. Because at the end of the day, if they don’t use the sys tem that we make, then the sys tem that we made was wrong to begin with.”

At the upcoming Airlift Tank er Association Convention in

Denver, Colorado, scheduled Oct. 27-30, attendees will have the opportunity to engage with the Puckboard team, ask ques tions and learn more about the application. Also, the team plans to unveil a brand new feature for the flight scheduling arena in volving currency, and showcase initial designs for intelligent rec ommendations–a feature plan ning to be made available in ear ly 2023.

METHODIST

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Medals

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nations among members of the same crews,” Donohue said.

A lapse in authorities tied to the end of the operation in Sep tember 2021 led to an adminis trative delay in reviewing higher-level award submissions.

Air Mobility Command worked closely with AFCENT and the Department of the Air Force to resolve the problem, resulting in not only the September awards board, but also new authorities that allow Air Mobility Com mand to convene its own boards to award the same caliber of dec orations moving forward.

“Make no mistake, we should have done this last year imme diately after the operation, and I recognize our airmen’s frus tration with the process,” Mini

right, and we’ve worked with our partners across the Air Force to ensure AMC is able to swift ly and effectively recognize our mobility warriors as they de liver warfighting excellence across every combatant com mand worldwide.”

The Distinguished Flying Crosses, Bronze Star Medals and Gallant Unit Citation are sched uled to be awarded across recip ients’ units in the coming weeks.

“This is about taking care of our airmen, and there is still more to be done,” Minihan said.

Minihan will present the first Distinguished Flying Crosses and Bronze Star Medals during a scheduled base visit in November at Joint Base McGuire-DixLakehurst.

To date, commanders have approved more than 4,500 med als for Mobility Air Forces air men who supported the opera

Innovation

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locally and approved later that same day by the oversight C-5 engineering team at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.

Metals Tech team man ufactured the 3-D printed hat sleeve and Sheet Metal team worked to attach it to the mix ing chamber and bonded new fiberglass around the poly mer flange. The repair was ac complished quickly and cost approximately $245, which is roughly the same cost for com parable aluminum material of that size.

“Not many, if any, 3-D print ed repairs exist, so we con stantly work to integrate our 3-D printer as a tool to help re pair our aircraft,” said Tech. Sgt March Tighe, 60th Mainte nance Squadron aircraft metals technology noncommissioned

officer in charge. “This is a part of a larger Advanced Manufac turing Technology push, not only across our career field but our nation, so proving its viability makes us all proud.”

A metal sleeve would have taken significantly more time. With the advanced capabilities of 3-D printing, the part was restored exactly to its original specifications, without adding a large amount of significant ad ditional weight to the compo nent.

Metals Tech also supplied a 3-D test piece of the same ma terial to assess whether or not the product would adhere to the surface of the 3-D material.

“We were surprised at how well it did adhere to the mate rial. In my opinion, the repair would be much stronger, stiffer and more perfectly round than the original flange. It created a better, longer lasting seal, that will hopefully extend the life of the flange and system,” Bruns

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Tighe said it was impressive to see a new technology be inte grated seamlessly by many dif ferent agencies to accomplish a repair that has never been com pleted – all in less than 39 hours.

“The cool thing about this re pair is that it is the first time we were able to get our C-5 engi neers to sign off on us utilizing 3-D printing as part of a larger repair; typically, we only man ufacture interior trim panels,” Tighe said. “This repair is cru cial for these mixing chambers because they’re a vital aircraft component that you can’t buy or make anymore . . . to be able to come up with an interim repair is a big win for the C-5 and us lo cally.”

The new part was complet ed and released for installation back on the aircraft at 7 p.m. Oct. 13.

Staff Sgt. Dennis Hoffman/U.S. Air Force U.S. airmen assigned to the 821st Contingency Response Group wait to board their flight at the passenger terminal on Travis Air Force Base, Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021.

Senior Airman Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force

A U.S. Air Force aircrew, assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, assists qualified evacuees boarding a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, Aug. 21, 2021.