Contracting cuts checks for mission, morale

10.24.2008

Story by Staff Sgt. Thomas Doscher 

386th Air Expeditionary Wing

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By Vincent Borden
386th Air Expeditionary Wing

Sgt. McClain puts those attributes to good use, daily. As a contracting officer and flight chief at the 386th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron, his job, which he described as similar to a "business advisor" in the civilian workforce, he has the opportunity to invest in the quality of life of Airmen assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing.

That requires being able to deal with the barriers that present themselves while working with foreign companies and businesses. But on its most basic level, it involves knowing a good deal when he sees one.

"You want to get the best value for the government," Sgt. McClain said. "You want to get as much competition as you can, so we try to solicit as many vendors as we can, making sure everything is technically acceptable. The more you open it up, the more the prices come down."

Sgt. McClain, who was a contracting superintendent at the wing for a year in 2007, said there's little that's changed here in the contracting business since his previous tour. A project is a process from start to finish, and still requires getting a request from a base organization, usually by a purchase request (Form 9), soliciting proposals, coming to a final consensus on price and signing a deal, as well as getting clearances and passes for workers to complete the projects on base.

That sometimes requires the base contracting officers to meet downtown with host-nation business leaders and owners to see what products and services are available. Contracting officers scrutinize over the details, trying to decide whether the offers will be satisfactory for the needs of the mission. Sgt. McClain said his biggest project at the moment, a fire suppression system that will improve the fire department's ability to respond to structural fires on base, is in its infancy, as the proposals are still being collected.

The project is multi-phased, with proposals being fielded for the underground piping and pumps separately from the alarms and any other additional parts.

From those proposals, the 386th Civil Engineer Squadron will get the opportunity to evaluate the technicalities of the work and choose the most sufficient construction proposal out of the stack. After receiving approval by the base commander, the contract must be approved the host-nation government before the process of passes and permissions can be extended to the laborers involved.

Although the times vary depending on the item, projects can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to complete.

The process is exactly the same on the services side of contracting, which focuses on attaining new equipment and services for Airmen by improving their morale.

Janet Moskal, a flight chief and government service civilian at the 386th ECONS, concentrates most of her efforts in that direction. Fresh off the purchase of a new custom made barbecue grill for the Desert Winds Dining Facility, she has a hand in everything from the upgrade of the military working dog kennels to the addition of new Crossfit equipment in the base gym and the leases for all vehicles on base.

Much of contracting work involves setting up a plan for delivery or the installation of something, and then executing those plans with the least amount of difficulty possible. Ms. Moskal, who is deployed from the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y., said her day much of the time consists of constantly making decisions to make sure her section "gets the right things."

"We want to get useful things at the right time and at the right price, as quickly as possible," said Ms. Moskal. "Sometimes you find exactly what you're looking for, and you're able to negotiate a price. It's all about getting to understand our customers and having to have a sense of who you're dealing with."

Getting the right thing on the first try is something one of her co-workers, Senior Airman Dave Moreno, is familiar with. His main customer is the 386th Expeditionary Medical Group, and he orders everything the organization isn't able to pick up through base supply. That includes dental and medical equipment, stretchers, carriers and litters, among other things.

The items the group requests "are usually well researched and very specific," he said, adding that he has to do what he can to give them what they need. Many times that means having to go outside of the local area to stateside vendors. It's not something that he minds at all; he likes the responsibility.

"Being in a deployed location, it's a lot less administrative work than back home," Airman Moreno said. "There, everything has to be reviewed. Here I write my own contracts."

The sense of being responsible for getting people what they can't get themselves seems to run through both sections of the contracting squadron. The sections are determined to get mission essential items Airmen need, whenever they need it, to improve the safety, security and morale of Airmen performing the mission.

For Ms. Moskal, who has a son in the Air Force, it brings emotional gratification. "Sometimes I think in those terms as a mother when I'll see guys that remind me of my son, especially when he got on that bus on the first day on his way to basic training," she said. "Mostly, though, it's as a person [who is] part of this effort, one that I respect. I want [Airmen's] families back home to know their family members are taken care of."

Some of the contracting officers concentrate on the overwhelming responsibility of aiding in the war fighting effort and supporting diverse missions of U.S. Central Command's premier airlift wing.

Sgt. McClain concentrates on permanency. It's something fitting for someone whose work requires the construction of buildings or complicated infrastructure systems.

"It's nice to see your contributions, especially in construction, where you see the project from start to finish," he said. "You can see your work; it's long lasting. It'll be here when you're gone."