Wing hopes to hit QOL Grand Slam

Published Aug. 15, 2008
By Master Sgt. Jeff Loftin
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The 379th Air Expeditionary Wing hopes to bat a thousand with a new campaign to improve quality of life.

The Grand Slam Campaign is a new initiative designed to add life to current facilities until new ones can be built.

"This campaign is about the quality of life for the Airmen stationed here and those who pass through here on their way to the area of responsibility," said Col. John Lohr, 379th Expeditionary Mission Support Group commander. "But its more than that - it's also about the safety and security of everyone on this base. The new facilities and renovation of the older facilities will focus on improving living conditions as well as eliminating existing hazards."

The campaign will use available resources and manpower to improve quality of life through various renovation and construction projects.

"We're transitioning from an expeditionary to an enduring base in a fiscally restrained environment," said Chief Master Sgt. Thomas Schwiesow, wing command chief. "We can't get to enduring overnight. While we're getting new facilities on line, we have to maintain the current facilities until the permanent ones are ready. This campaign is about what we can do locally with the personnel we have assigned. They're small, but meaningful projects."

The campaign uses baseball terminology because of a nickname the wing earned during World War II. The then 379th Bomb Group was the only 8th Air Force unit to ever have an operational "grand slam." The unit had the best bombing results, most tonnage of bombs on target, largest number of attacking aircraft, least number of losses and lowest aircraft abort rate.

Since the 379th AEW hoped to have similar success in multiple areas, the campaign was divided into "innings."

"We wanted to assemble the projects into a sort of lineup," said the chief. "We want to start knocking out as many of these as we can and make some progress in maintaining our overall living accommodations. Although we identify nine innings in the overall plan, these are not nine separate phases to be done in building-block fashion. They will all be running simultaneously."

The first inning of the campaign will be to get the word out to Airmen about improvement efforts.

The second inning starts this week with a fence line to fence line base clean up dubbed "Clean Sweep." Thirty-member teams will canvass the base picking up trash and debris left over from previous phases of the base's development. Personnel from the wing will also be responsible for cleaning up within 75 feet of their work centers.

"We need to set a baseline as far as what we want this place to look like," said Chief Schwiesow. "If we get it cleaned up right from the start, that becomes our baseline. This applies to both the living and the working areas. This will be the standard of appearance we want to maintain from here forward."

The third inning is the "Grand Slam Cadillac Plan." As a part of the plan, all the wing's portable restrooms and shower facilities, known as cadillacs, have been ranked from worst to best. Members of the 379th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron will renovate them in that order. The plan calls for five of the current facilities to be renovated and three new permanent ones to be open by Dec. 25.

"We want to take care of our combat warriors by providing a nice clean area for them to take care of their hygiene needs," said the chief. "Once the new concrete facilities come on line we'll be converting the old cadillacs into laundry rooms. We'd like to eliminate the $5.5 million laundry service contract, do our laundry on base and use that money for the mission. The laundry facilities would be available 24/7 with no three-day wait. Many people have asked for that."

Until then, wing units with the most personnel using each existing cadillac have taken over as facility owners.

"By putting specific units in charge of specific buildings and areas, we hope to instill a sense of pride in ownership which will become the standard as the 379 AEW transitions from expeditionary to enduring," said Colonel Lohr.

In the fourth inning, wing leadership also hopes to instill pride of ownership in the temporary homes in Coalition Compound. The "Dormitory Dugout Refurbishment" prioritizes the dorms from worst to best, and calls for renovation in that order.

"The facilities were designed for a five-year lifespan," said Chief Schwiesow. "We've been operating them for seven years now. They've outlived their lifecycle, but we need to extend the service life until the permanent facilities come on line. We want to give people a safe and comfortable home away from home."

The fifth inning of the Grand Slam Campaign is to develop a sense of neighborhoods on the base. Base members will be given the opportunity to name the installation's streets. Streets can be named after events in unit history, campaigns, important military members, etc. Anyone can participate in the naming process and suggestions should be submitted appropriately through the chain of command. The wing commander will make final decisions on the suggestions.

"Street names help us navigate, especially when we first arrive," said Lt. Col. Eric Turner, 379th ECES commander. "They help people who need emergency aid to give their location to 911 dispatchers. And, they help provide a sense of community and a tie to our heritage. Many expeditionary installations don't have street names, however, this is a great investment as we transition to an enduring presence here."

The sixth inning calls for the identification and repainting of cross walks in Coalition Compound.

"The 'You're Safe' inning involves the safety of our warriors," said the chief. "We noticed that the crosswalks are either unrecognizable or marked at inappropriate locations. The traffic pattern has changed, but some of the crosswalks haven't. We're going to mark the places that make the most sense to have crosswalks and repaint them. We want to increase the safety of the pedestrians and the vehicle drivers."

The seventh inning, called "You're Out," will continue the efforts to keep the base clean by making it more convenient for people to put trash where it belongs. Dumpsters will be positioned near each dormitory in the Blatchford-Preston Complex.

The eighth inning will focus on security of the BPC dormitories.

"In the future there will be a gate opening up on the east side of BPC," said the chief. "That is where the main traffic for the base will be coming through. With the increased traffic we want to make sure we limit the access to the dormitories to only those who reside there."

Locks will be upgraded so each resident's room key will open the dormitory's main doors and all its common areas.

The final inning of the Grand Slam Campaign will be a "Louisville Slugger Ribbon Cutting."

"By next summer we want to have completed our initiative to revitalize the Coalition Compound and celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony," he said. "We want to continually make progress toward the goal of improving the living conditions on base for all war fighters whether stationed here or transiting through."