Team Pete Kicks Off Operational Readiness Inspection Expect Delays at Gates and Base Services, Oct. 1 Through 22
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“2003 AFSPC Best Large Wing PA Office” Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Vol. 48 No. 39 Photo by Lt. Col. Clancy Preston Team Pete kicks off Operational Readiness Inspection Expect delays at gates and base services, Oct. 1 through 22. Photo by Photos by Diane Vulcan Photo by Budd Butcher Photo by Dennis Plummer Inside This Issue: At Your Service ... 10 Action Line 556-7777 Straight Talk Line 556-9154 SPACE OBSERVER 2 Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 Commentary Language – a cultural gift By 2nd Lt. Mary E. Miksell in a small town 10 minutes from the taught them Spanish at home. So I had businesses wanted bilingual employees 319th Operations Support Squadron U.S.-Mexican border in South Texas. translators around me, yet I could to provide better customer service. In Everywhere in the Rio Grande Valley, not help but feel a little left out and a college the opportunity to escort and The ability to speak another lan- people can be heard speaking Spanish. little ashamed. “house” student nationals usually went guage can be beneficial not only for At first it did not seem like a big deal After high school, I felt better to those who were either taking the one’s career options but also for life. to be unable to speak Spanish since all knowing I would be leaving the valley same language course or were already Parents who speak more than one lan- our schools taught in English, with a so I wouldn’t have to continue to get fluent in their language. guage often pass on their bilingual few classes reserved solely for frowns when I told people I did not Even in the Air Force there are capabilities to their children. Spanish-speaking children. Since my speak Spanish, which had began to opportunities, like becoming an Children are better equipped to brothers, sisters and I did not go any- annoy me. attaché or a foreign area officer, where learn another language than adults, yet where without my mother, the need to Why should I have to speak the knowledge of another language or some parents feel reluctant or just do understand Spanish was nil as she was Spanish just because I look Hispanic? culture would come in handy and in not realize the potential of having our translator. Because of that sentiment, I chose some cases, be required. bilingual children. My parents, for It wasn’t until I was in my teens to study Russian in college. Yet it The ability to grow by expanding instance, are fluent in English and that the effects of not being bilingual did not matter where I moved, people language capabilities and seeing Spanish. However, I was not raised in a set in. Whether my friends and I went still looked at me and assumed I beyond one’s own culture is rewarding. Spanish-speaking home. to football games, the movies or just to spoke Spanish. Parents who have the ability Growing up with the last name the mall, people would speak to me in Many times in my life I had to to teach to their children another “Perez” and the features of a born and Spanish. pass up opportunities because I am not language or culture give them a true bred Hispanic has led to the assump- Most of my friends, like me, had bilingual. Finding a job in high school gift. Such a gift can be passed on tion that I speak Spanish. I was raised bilingual parents, but their parents seemed difficult since many of the for generations. And many more … Left to right: Brigadier General Richard E. Webber, 21st Space Wing commander, joins Amn. Lamar Gaines, 21st Space Communica- tion Squadron, as the two share a baker’s knife with Chief Master Sgt. Wayne Barron, 21st Space Wing command chief, to cut the first slice of birthday cake, celebrating the Air Force’s 57th birthday Sept. 17 at the Aragon Dining Facility. Gaines was recognized as the base’s youngest Airman at the celebration. Photo by Dennis Plummer A Moment in Time ! Sept. 30, 1949 - The Berlin airlift Published by Colorado Springs Military Newspapers Group, 31 E. Platte Avenue, Suite 300, Colorado officially ends. Allied aircraft carried Springs, 80903, a private firm in no way connected with the U.S. Air Force, under exclusive written contract with the more than 2.3 million tons of supplies 21st Space Wing. This commercial enterprise Air Force newspaper is an authorized publication for members of the U.S. military services. 21st Space Wing on 277,264 flights. United States planes Contents of the Space Observer are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, carried 1.8 million tons. the Department of Defense or the Department of the Air Force. Commander The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute Brig. Gen. Richard E. Webber ! Sept. 30, 1995 - The 93rd Bomb endorsement by DOD, the Department of the Air Force, or CSMNG, of the products or services advertised. Everything Chief of Public Affairs Wing, the first B-52 wing in Strategic advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color, reli- Capt. Amy Sufak gion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical handicap, political affiliation or any other non-merit factor of Air Command, inactivates after 47 the purchaser, user or patron. Editorial Staff years of continuous service. Its home Editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by the 21st Space Wing Public Affairs Office, 775 Editor Loring Ave., Suite 218, Peterson AFB, Colo., 80914-1294. All photographs are Air Force photographs unless base at Castle AFB, Calif., closes as Staff Sgt. Denise Johnson otherwise indicated. well. Also closing after 41 years is The Space Observer is published every Thursday. For advertising inquiries, call Colorado Springs Military Staff Writer Newspapers, (719) 634-3223 Ext. 207. Employees of Peterson Air Force Base who want to place a free classified Airman Mandy Weightman Plattsburgh AFB, N.Y. advertisement should call 556-5241. Articles for the Space Observer should be submitted to the 21st SW/PAI, Attn: Space Observer, 775 Loring Layout and Design ! Oct. 1, 1989 - General Hansford Ave., Ste. 218, Peterson AFB, Colo., 80914-1294 or e-mail [email protected]. Deadline for submission Kara Magana T. Johnson becomes the first Air Force is 4:30 p.m. the Thursday one week before publication. All articles, copy and announcements submitted will be edited to conform to AFI Series 35 and the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. For details, call the editor at (719) Academy graduate to become a four- 556-4351 or DSN 834-4351. star general. SPACE OBSERVER Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 3 www.peterson.af.mil News Practice makes perfect ORI By Major Robert H. McIntyre Best practices AFSPC/IG When the IG team inspects a unit, they look at unit readiness and While practice does make compliance with directives, as well perfect, a number of other things as the good things people are can be done to help units success- doing. A best practice is a good fully complete an Operational thing, a superior method or innova- Readiness Inspection. tive practice that contributes to The Air Force Space improved performance of process- Command Inspector General Web es. Air Force Instruction 90-201, site, https://halfway.peterson.af.mil Inspector General Complaints, /afspcig, contains a wealth of tasks the IG to record observed best information to help units prepare practices as an unclassified adden- for their next ORI. The site contains dum to all inspection reports. Units previous inspection reports, best are encouraged to look at these best practices and publications. Al- practices and apply the processes, though the site has other areas, if they can. A best practice is yet these merit the most attention: another tool for a unit’s use. Inspection reports Publications There are several reasons why Last, but certainly not least, people should look at previous are the publications – particularly inspection reports. For one thing, the inspection checklists – on the no one ever wants to repeat a Web site. When the IG team write-up. Nothing makes a unit inspects a unit, the inspection is look worse than having the conducted with the major com- same problem found on a subse- mand’s inspection checklists. quent inspection. The checklists are derived Look at your unit’s past directly from the instructions. So, inspection reports and at your sister if the instructions comply with units’ inspection reports. If a unit is the checklists, odds are the unit a missile squadron, people can is also in compliance with pretty well bet other missile the instructions. squadrons conduct their business in Units that conduct self- much the same manner as that inspections, using the inspection squadron. The same goes for checklists, can self-identify defi- spacelift squadrons, satellite opera- ciencies and correct them or docu- tions squadrons or any other Air ment the existence of the deficien- Force Space Command squadron. cy if it is not correctable. In While studying sister units’ inspec- either case, ensure members of the Photo by Budd Butcher tion reports, take a close look at the unit take proactive steps to correct Team Pete makes clean sweep errors they were assessed – not the deficiency. Three 21st Comptroller Squadron members join together during a mass GI Party to laugh at them, but to ensure Units that aggressively per- at the dormitiories Saturday. Airman Santana Brown (left) helps Lt. Col. Brian units are not committing the same form self-inspections typically do Shimel, commander, sweep a walkway while Airman Aaron Roybal awaits his errors.