Safety helps boost integration at McConnell

Published Sept. 29, 2009
By Tech. Sgt. Jason Schaap
931st Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. -- It wasn't so much a shotgun wedding, more like a honeymoon event. The coming together of the 931 Air Refueling Group and 22nd Air Refueling Wing safety offices really started a month ago with total force integration meetings.

Not long after the two made the integration commitment, Maj. Travis Clark, a reservist and 931st ARG chief of safety, was firing shotguns here with safety officers in the Regular Air Force's 22nd ARW. The shotgun session was part of a "bird scare" safety requirement.

"This is the first time we've ever combined with (the 22nd)," Major Clark said before a shotgun familiarization class at McConnell firing range on Sept. 16. "We've been making great in-roads."

Safety officers primarily use shotguns when deployed overseas, Major Clark said, to scare birds that gather near military flight lines and pose a risk of colliding with in-flight aircraft. At McConnell and other U.S. bases, dogs are the primary means for scaring birds. Pyrotechnics and decoys are other resources.

"You use every other method you can before you use a shotgun," Major Clark said. "We also look at changing our take-off times. Birds are more active in the morning and evening."

Shotguns are the only weapons in the Air Force, the safety officers were told during their familiarization class, that shooters qualify with the first time they fire. Essentially, practice rounds and qualification rounds are the same.

Before going to the range, Major Clark said it was no biggie shooting a shotgun since he grew up in Alaska. However, after he qualified, Major Clark admitted it was "harder than it looks."

Shotguns are not a common weapon for non-security force Airmen. A safety officer toting the iconic gun sounds almost like a visual oxymoron.

"All people think we do is write reports," said Lt. Col. Robert Pochert, 22nd ARW chief of safety. "That is so far from the truth. We're trying to change the mindset about what safety does."

Like Colonel Pochert and others on his staff, Major Clark is a KC-135 Stratotanker pilot. Flight safety is their specialty, but their TFI work has focused on elements of ground safety too.

"We started weekly (integration) meetings last month," Major Clark said. "So far, I think it's great. The (Air National) Guard is there as well. It's a Total McConnell Team meeting."

Safety was part of a Total Force Integration "meet and greet" during the 931st's September unit training assembly. Air Force Reserve and Regular Air Force Airmen from the offices of chaplain, judge advocate general, equal opportunity, and inspector general also attended the meet and greet to discuss ways to better support each other.

"The big thing is continuity," Colonel Pochert said. "(Regular Air Force Airmen) typically rotate jobs every 18 months and bases every three to four years. There is a level of continuity that the Reserve brings to the table that is impossible for the active-duty to have." (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)