Airmen ensure equipment accountability

Published April 15, 2010
By Tech. Sgt. Lindsey Maurice
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- When it comes to government spending, every dollar spent and every piece of equipment bought must be accounted for. In a deployed environment, this is especially true for the U.S. Air Force as each aircraft part, tool, weapon or piece of ground equipment is vital to the mission and in winning the war on terror.

It is for this reason that the 386th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron Equipment Accountability office takes its mission so seriously.

"Our job is to make sure we keep accountability of all of our assets within the U.S. Air Forces Central Command area of responsibility," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Royster 386th ELRS Equipment Accountability NCO in charge. "We act as a liaison between AFCENT and our base equipment custodians to ensure we maintain control of the wing's 2,800-plus assets valued at more than $32 million."

These assets include everything from aerospace ground equipment and aircraft parts to vehicles, weapons, computer systems and other high value inventory items, said the NCO.

The three-person equipment accountability team oversees just over 65 equipment custodians, ensuring that each custodian is trained and properly accounts for all serviceable and unserviceable items within their respective shops.

"We definitely stay busy here," said Staff Sgt. Ryann Del Rosario, 386th ELRS Equipment Accountability supervisor. "We're always answering phone calls and e-mails from our custodians asking for guidance and help. Sometimes we can answer their questions on the spot and sometimes the questions need elevated to higher headquarters, but we always get them an answer."

The NCO said the team also conducts regular organizational visits to ensure custodians are in compliance with Air Force standards.

"We have to be thorough in our visits," he said. "We have to make sure they are aware of any discrepancies and that items are properly accounted for so that the next rotation isn't caught off guard and left to fix things they weren't made aware of."

Senior Airman Rivera Taylor, 386th ELRS Equipment Accountability equipment liaison, said her team strives to help custodians any way they can to ensure mission success.

"We try to point them in the right direction and make sure they're keeping correct accountability of all their items, which is something that needs to be done on a daily basis," she said, "because things may come up, equipment may become unserviceable or items may be found that the custodians need to turn in -- anything of that nature. Certain items need to be inventoried on a regular schedule too such as weapons. This is something we must to stay on top of as well."

Airman Taylor said that with the constant turnover of custodians downrange due to three to six-month deployment cycles, continuity and training is also a challenge.

"Unlike back home where most of our equipment custodians have years of experience in that capacity, many of our custodians here have never been one before or have very little experience or knowledge about what they need to do," she said.

Sergeant Del Rosario added that this is especially challenging in that training new custodians to be experts takes time, of which there sometimes doesn't seem to be enough of.

"The high turnover ratio is hard sometimes," he said. "It's seems like when you finally get an equipment custodian to the point where they have a good grasp on everything, it's around the time that they're leaving and a brand new person comes along and you have to start all over again."

In addition to working equipment accountability issues on the base, the team also coordinates equipment transfers and issues abroad.

"We have a big impact AOR-wide from helping other bases acquire equipment assets such as needed parts for an aircraft that needs fixed to transferring weapons downrange," said Sergeant Royster.

The sergeant said the office also coordinates the transfer of weapons stateside for those military members who deployed with weapons and who are leaving the AOR on emergency leave.

Senior Master Sgt. Henry Purvis, 386th ELRS Material Management flight chief, said he is extremely proud of the hard work and effort the Equipment Accountability team has put forth over the past few months.

"This Equipment Accountability Office team has made major upgrades to this program," he said. "They have revamped the organizational visits program to comply with Air Force directives and established supplemental training for all deployed equipment custodians, which raised knowledge awareness and reduced administrative errors.

"I believe accountability is very important in today's Air Force and this team has displayed a sustained superior performance in accomplishing this mission. Their job is vital to this goal and I'm very proud of the job they do."

The team agreed that there are certain traits necessary to keep their shop running as smoothly as it has over the last three and a half months of their deployment. These traits include organization, knowledge and patience.

"Organization is probably the most important of all in the equipment accountability realm because you have so many moving parts and things that you have to keep track of," said Airman Taylor. "Without it, the mission would fail."

Sergeant Del Rosario said his favorite part of working in the equipment accountability office is meeting new people.

"I enjoy interacting with the equipment custodians, actually going out and inspecting them and seeing how they're doing," he said. "In visiting with them and talking to them you can see what their individual missions entail, how their equipment is being used and the impact they have on the Air Force mission. This in turn shows us the broad impact of our mission."