CGO Corner THE ALEET ADVENTURE by Captain Timothy B. Fuhrman
ER: CGO CORNER
As the military searches for ways to cultivate well-rounded officers, the Air Force provides its maintenance officers the opportunity to explore other career fields that could place them in a non-operational environment. While the AF has many broadening opportunities for its officer Capt Timothy B. Fuhrman core, an outstanding career broadening program for 21A/M officers is the Acquisitions Logistics Experience Exchange Tour (ALEET). During an ALEET tour, the operational experiences of logistics officers are utilized in a different environment in an attempt to improve the expeditionary warfighter systems of tomorrow. For the maintenance officers, ALEET gives them a greater understanding of how the Air Force functions as a whole entity. As 21A/M officers work within the acquisition field, they foster and build relationships with people outside the operational environment. The lines of communication between these two sectors of the AF helps both the maintenance and acquisition communities gain a greater knowledge of each other. Maintenance officers selected for ALEET enter the world of acquisitions where they could possibly find themselves leading the requirements process for different eLog21 initiatives or even directing field tests that would substantiate the supportability of the F-35’s radar systems. Acquisition agencies want maintenance officers on their team because the advantages of cross-functional communication between maintenance and acquisitions are invaluable. A maintenance officer understands the fundamental challenges of supporting a weapons system in the field; this firsthand knowledge can be incorporated into the initial development of a major system thus saving millions of dollars in total life cycle costs and producing a more maintenance-friendly product. The AF is one big community and any officer will tell you that networking within the community is an extremely important tool. Cross-talk between AF installations about maintenance best practices, results from inspections, or specific maintenance procedures can be very useful. Spending three years in the acquisitions world can spread your network beyond the traditional AFSCs at operational bases. Building professional relationships with others can help you throughout your career. However, as an ALEET candidate, you will specifically be able to benefit from sharing raw data about a common interest, validating technical standards, collaborating on MAJCOM policies, and working with private sector partners. As a maintenance officer, there are some things you must know about acquisitions. Typically, an acquisition organization doesn’t support flying operations, conduct NSIs or ORIs, or participate in AEF deployments. Its mission is to procure products for tomorrow and to sustain the products of today. A product can range from a simple web-based system like the Air Force Portal to a highly complex satellite system like the Space Based Infrared System.
A missile plume is detected by the Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft's infrared detection system at ranges up to several hundred kilometers. (photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin)
46 F A L L
2005
Moreover, an acquisition agency’s organizational chart doesn’t follow the AF’s Combat Wing Organizational construct. Instead, it’s generally comprised of Directorates and System Program Offices (SPOs) that are supported by functional areas.