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What happens when a significant event like a power outage stifles the ability of the 1st Fighter Wing to conduct daily sorties for training in support of the Air Force mission? Well, the short answer is, it doesn’t.
Units from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, banded together to overcome an unexpected power outage to preserve continuous 1st FW flying operations on Sep. 24, 2021.
"We are America's First Air Dominance Team, and our Airmen thrive when faced with a challenge," said U.S. Air Force Col. William Creeden, 1st FW commander. "A base-wide power outage means a critical break in the communication chain; yet our talented and innovative Airmen quickly adapted to the situation to ensure there was no impact to the mission. I couldn't be more proud of the work they do every day to ensure the 1st FW is prepared and ready, no matter what."
Several components must work in tandem to successfully accomplish operations at the 1st FW, from fuel distribution to logistical support, delivering aircraft parts and everything in between.
"This shows that our mission doesn't stop and neither do our Airmen, and they're going to get the job done regardless of what type of environment we are operating in," said 1st Lt. Adam Butz, 27th Fighter Squadron sortie generation flight commander. "Between the fuels management flight, also called Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL), the 633rd Logistics Readiness Squadron, and weather, there weren't any support functions that couldn't do their missions to support the 1st FW."
To facilitate successful operations in adverse situations, 1st FW leadership empowers technicians and supervisors to make split-second decisions by utilizing decentralized command and control.
"We have procedures in place for situations like this, and the real reason why we were so flexible is that the 1st FW tends to practice decentralized command and control at the lowest level so we can adapt seamlessly to whatever situation we face," Butz said. "When this happened, upper-level leadership didn't have to get involved. It was our technicians and our supervisors out on the flight line that made it happen."
Some may wonder why the 1st FW wouldn't resort to canceling flying operations and continue them the following day after power gets restored. The answer is, potential adversaries may possess the ability to strategically obstruct Air Force operations and members at JBLE have to prepare and train for any situation.
"We understand some of our potential adversaries may engage in asymmetrical warfare by either weakening our communications or our power infrastructure," Butz said. "I think this situation highlights our awareness and deliberate resilience when our primary logistics chains are broken.”
According to Butz, overcoming unforeseen complications that can be detrimental to the Air Force mission instills a level of confidence from leadership in the men and women of the 1st FW to generate and sustain airpower in any environment against any adversary.
| Date Taken: | 10.26.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.26.2021 15:38 |
| Story ID: | 408048 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 44 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Power outage can't stifle 1st FW Ops, by Marcus Bullock, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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