Talking 'TFI:' McConnell Airmen taking integration to 'next level'

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jason Schaap
  • 931st Air Refueling Group Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  Reservists and Regular Air Force personnel met here during the 931st Air Refueling Group's September training assembly to talk Total Force Integration, or, what is increasingly referred to as "TFI."

Officially, it was called a "meet and greet." But really, most of the representatives--from the offices of Safety, Judge Advocate General, Chaplain, Equal Opportunity, and Inspector General--already knew each other. The 931st's Reservists have been working closely with Regular duty personnel from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing since 931st aircrews started flying the 22nd's aircraft here in 1995.

TFI was happening at McConnell long before it became an Air Force focus several years ago. This meeting was about taking existing integration to the "next level," Lt. Col. Jeff Pickard said.

Colonel Pickard is the 931st's new deputy commander for maintenance. He and Lt. Col. Scott Thatcher, director of staff for the 22nd Air Refueling Wing, represented the leadership of their units at the meeting.

Reservists from the five offices addressed also represent the majority of the 931st ARG headquarters staff. Two of them, EO and JAG, already have plans to move out of the 931st headquarters building and into their 22nd counterparts' facilities.

"The support agencies, what I call the glue, are here together in this room," Colonel Thatcher said at the beginning of the meeting. "What we're trying to do is synergize (them)."

The colonel, knowing "synergy" has been used to the point of cliché, joked that he would only say the word once. But in short, to borrow another oft-used term here, leaders here have tasted the benefits of the Team McConnell synergy bar, and they want a bigger bite.

"I have 18 maintainers on the flightline right now backfilling for active-duty maintainers that are deployed," Colonel Pickard said, while pointing to many examples where TFI has benefited both 931st and 22nd aircraft maintainers.

Reserve maintainers, for example, can help reduce the stress placed on Regular maintainers who don't deploy and have to fill the vacuum of work created when their coworkers deploy. In turn, Reservists can work beyond one weekend a month and gain training they need when it's their turn to deploy.

"If all they do is generate airplanes," Colonel Pickard said, "they miss all the other stuff they need to be ready for war."

Just a few days after the TFI discussion, Maj. Travis Clark, 931st ARG safety chief, was at a McConnell range firing shotguns with safety officers assigned to the 22nd ARW. The guns are used to scare birds away from areas where they could be hit by military aircraft.
"This is the first time we've ever combined with (the 22nd)," Major Clark said before a shotgun familiarization class with the other officers.

Chaplain (Maj.) Boyd Short's 22nd office and Chaplain (Capt.) James Hicks' 931st office gained a big TFI boost in 2008 when they successfully teamed for an Operational Readiness Inspection in Wisconsin. The two were still discussing ways to build upon that relationship when the TFI meeting ended.

"One thing we're going to be talking about is contingency ministry planning," Chaplain Short said, referring to what might happen if a major event caused most or all of his office to be deployed. "Who is going to run stuff while we are gone?"

TFI doesn't have one definition. It might mean backfilling deployed personnel for one office. It might mean sharing office space for another. "Integration is what you guys tell me it is," Colonel Thatcher said. "Integration is working when you tell me it is working."

As the first KC-135 associate setup in the Air Force, Colonel Pickard said Team McConnell is "going to blaze the (TFI) trail" for associate units. "I consider this to be ongoing," he said. "I don't think this will ever be finished."