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Air Force Maj. Steve Jacque, the Defense Contract Management Agency’s Government Flight Representative of the Year assigned to Special Programs South, was lauded for his contributions to the program Secretary of Defense Robert Gates initiated to repair the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance deficit in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The program, Project Liberty, involves the procurement of 37 MC-12W aircraft, also known as the Liberty Project Aircraft.
Phil Yacovoni, director of DCMA Special Programs South, praised Jacque for forging a unified government and military team focused on improving all aspects of safety of flight to deliver mission- ready platforms.
“Jacque has been a real asset to DCMA Special Programs South and a true combat multiplier,” said Yacovoni.
The Liberty provides real-time, full-motion video used to augment other downrange intelligence-collecting capabilities used to help military leaders make battlefield decisions. The aircraft sends video to relay nodes distributed throughout the country. Those nodes then push the video to forward-deployed ground forces.
“Platforms like the MC-12 help troops disrupt and hunt down our enemies often before they strike, saving the lives of American troops while sparing innocent civilians,” Gates said at a visit to the production lines of L-3 Communications in Greenville, Texas.
The $950 million dollar program is a success story for DCMA. It normally takes a decade for an acquisition program to reach a 90 percent solution. It took less than a year to field the first MC-12W aircraft, which was brought into to combat within 10 months. In addition, the Air Force was able to field three expeditionary squadrons within a year and a half.
Project Liberty accomplishments included setting new acquisitions, training and deployment benchmarks to provide a full combat aircraft squadron to the Iraqi war zone in less than 10 months. This is the fastest delivery of an Air Force weapons system from concept to combat since the P-51 Mustang during World War II.
Jacque leads an aviation program team which provides oversight for contractor aviation special programs. The team works with Kerry Smithers, GFR at DCMA Aircraft Integrated Maintenance Operations – North Texas. Smithers’ team supports the Liberty Project Aircraft.
DCMA aviation program teams oversee ground and flight operations at contractor’s facilities. Each team has a GFR, an aviation maintenance manager and a contract safety manager. While Smithers’ team manages multiple programs at various facilities, they’ve provided extra attention and oversight to the Liberty Program and its fast moving, frequently changing demands.
“Jacque is a very focused and serious officer who strives to make a difference daily,” said Smithers. “Both of us have worked diligently to ensure the Project Liberty contractor and subcontractors procedures were sound and effective ensuring asset security, safety, and overall quality of the contractors’ efforts; all while getting the Liberty aircraft to the warfighter.”
While modification and maintenance to the Liberty aircraft is ‘routine,’ the flight testing aspect shows how Jacque stepped up and went above and beyond to ensure program succes, Smithers said.
“These aircraft go almost directly from the contractor facility to the fight. Because of that, all aircraft system and most mission capability testing, calibration and validation flights take place at the contractor facility,” said Smithers.
The sheer number of aircraft and sorties placed a huge demand on Air Force Materiel Command pilots; Jacque soon took on additional ‘pilot duty’ to help out.
“Needless to say, he was part of something very important to the warfighters and he made it happen when and however he could.”
DCMA has GFRs that fly, but Jacque’s billet was not originally a flying billet. He came into the position as a fully qualified C-17 pilot and was able to augment that DCMA mission by stepping in and helping fly C-17s into depot maintenance facilities. When DCMA learned that the Air Force needed experienced C-12 pilots, Yacovoni endorsed Jacque’s chance to fly as guest help outside of DCMA.
The 645th Aeronautical Systems Squadron worked rapidly to get Jacque a training slot alongside one of their pilots, Maj. Jose Lopez.
“Since I’d flown a previous version of the C-12, I was able to step in as one of the initial cadre of MC-12W instructor pilots. It gave the AESS an extra instructor pilot without the administrative cost of acquiring another pilot,” said Jacque.
After training, Jacque and Lopez went right into accepting aircraft from Hawker Beechcraft and conducted functional check flights. Since the initial deliveries, around the clock Liberty production efforts have meant Lopez and the other Liberty pilots fly seven days a week for months at a time. Jacque was able to provide a few days break when it was needed the most. He contributed 45 days to the flying schedule and another 15 days to ground training, testing and administrative work required to stay current.
“Initially, I filled a shortfall for the 645th until they could train more pilots. For the last couple months, my GFR schedule has only allowed me to fly on the weekends twice a month, as well as some holidays. It’s not a great deal of flying, but it gives the pilots assigned to the 645th at least a few weekends as well as some holidays off,” Jacque said.
According to Yacovoni, it’s Jacque’s spirit of professionalism and dedication that helped him earn the honor of Government Flight Representative of the Year. However, Jacque is more pleased to know that the intelligence gathered by the aircraft he has supported has led to the capture of 60 terrorists and criminals in Iraq and helped locate and identify roadside bombs around the southern Afghan.
| Date Taken: | 11.09.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.09.2010 15:42 |
| Story ID: | 59763 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 280 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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