The White Falcon - 25.11.1977, Blaðsíða 1

Volume 33 Number 47
Keflavik, Iceland
November 25, 1977
Spanish speaking Navy man
Air Force
Consecutive
long tours
intertheater
approved
Consecutive long tours in different
overseas theaters have been approved,
the change is effective immediately.
Previously only reassignments within
the same theater, such as Pacific Air
Forces, could be approved if personnel
were already stationed there.
Now, assignments can be made from one
theater, such as Pacific Air Forces, to
another theater, such as United States
\ir Forces Europe.
Personnel officials say the change
will result in a savings in permanent
change of station money and reduction in
personnel turbulence. Each intertheater
consecutive overseas tour will eliminate
one PCS move for some Air Force family.
For instance, a member making a
family move from PACAF to USAFE can be
replaced in PACAF by a person from the
continental U.S. The member leaving a
stateside base may be replaced by a
member returning from overseas, making
a total of three moves.
Under previous assignment policies,
both overseas members would have re-
turned to the states. They would have
been replaced overseas by two other
members from the states, making a total
of four moves.
The change will be incorporated in
the next revision of AFR 39-11, "Airman
Assignments," and AFR 36-20, "Officer
Assignments."
Further information on this policy
change is available at local consolid-
ated base personnel offices.
Christmas 'early
Navy personnel whose expiration of
Active Obligated Service (EAOS) occurs
between Dec. 19 and Jan. 2, may be
separated or transferred for separation
beginning Dec. 1 2*_ under the provisions
of the Christmas "Early Out" program.
outs’ available
Details on "Early Outs" during the
Christmas and New Year holiday periods
are in Bureau of Naval Personnel Manual
3840240.4J.(4). Waivers of these
provisions will not be authorized. Con
tact the Personnel Office for details.
Reservations required
Call home for Christmas
Reservations for overseas commercial
telephone calls will begin Nov. 28.
This will enable the Naval Station Tele-
phone Office to register times and dates
of calls with the Icelandic Post and
Telegraph.
In the past, many people have been
disappointed when not being able to make
calls during the Christmas season be-
cause of heavy traffic experienced by
the commercial overseas exchange.
Reservations will commence at the
start of business Nov. 28. The tele-
phone number for booking these calls is
4600.
Reservations will be required for
Dec. 24, 25, 26 and 31 and also for Jan.
1.
College entrance test slated
SAT test
The second Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT) will be administered Jan. 28,
at the A. T. Mahan High School.
Registration applications and fees
for this test must be in the states
by Dec. 20. Individuals taking this
test must report at the school on Jan.
28, at 8 a.m. with their admission
ticket and two number two pencils in
hand.
Graduate Management test
The Graduate Management Admission
Test is scheduled for Jan. 28. Any in-
dividual who would like to take this
test should write Graduate Management
Admission Test, Educational Testing
Service, Box 966-R, Princeton,
N.J., 08540. If there are further
questions regarding testing please con-
tact the High School Counselor at 7625.
Airman brings
October 9, 1977, Airman Apprentice
Silvester Delrosario was planning to
sleep late, it was his day off. He
worked swing shifts at the Operations
Department in the Passenger Service
section.
His plans were interrupted, however,
when he received a telephone call from
his department. He had to go to work.
But today he wouldn't be working for the
Navy. Today he was to become an air-
craft controlman at the Keflavik air-
port .
The control tower at the airport had
received a message that four Peruvian
AM26 aircraft and one C-130’aircraft
would be landing. Not an unusual
occurance, except that four of the
planes didn't have anyone on board that
could speak English. Silvester, having
spent much of his early life in the
Dominican Republic, could speak fluent
Spanish so the problem seemed to be
solved. There was just one little de-
tail that remained. Silvester had never
even been inside of an aircraft control
tower before and didn't know the first
thing about landing an aircraft.
Silvester had a lot to learn and only
a short time to learn it. The planes,
originally scheduled to land at 11 a.m.,
didn't arrive until 3:30 p.m. This gave
down aircraft
Silvester an extra 4^ hours to
familarize himself with the terminology
and procedures.
Then at 3:30 Silvester had a chance
to test his brief aircraft controller
training. A call came to Keflavik
control stating that the aircraft were
12 miles out. A few minutes later,
another call, eight miles away. Could
Silvester do it? Another call, this
time the aircraft were only five miles
away. Before anyone in the tower had
a chance to spot the craft they were re-
ported right over the airport. Where
were they? They couldn't be seen, the
clouds were begining to roll in. Then
all of a sudden a speck was seen in the
clearing. It was the lead plane. The
pilot could speak English so the regular
aircontroller brought him in.
Now it was Silvesters turn. The other
four pilots couldn't speak English.
One-by-one Silvester cleared them to
land, making sure that what the air*-
controlmen told him was exactly what he
translated to the pilot. The planes all
made it down safely. The job was over,
and Silvester was ready to go home.
Silvester, still nervous and shaking a
little, put the microphone down, put on
his coat and said, "Man, I'm glad that's
over."
'Production oriented maintenance’
concept adopted by 57th
The 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron
is implementing a new maintenance con-
cept called "Production Oriented Main-
tenance Organization" (POMO). The new
system is a move away from the "Special-
ist" concept of aircraft maintenance to-
wards the "crew chief" concept. The
POMO Concept was undertaken primarily to
improve the utilization of maintenance
personnel on the flightline by qualify-
ing them to perform tasks other than
those of their primary Air Force Spec-
iality Code (AFSC) and to place the em-
phasis for sortie production at a lower
level.
Essentially, this is changing a man-
agement concept that has been in effect
for about 20 years. Approximately a
year ago, two Tactical Air Command wings
started this system on a much larger
scale. Although other Fighter Inter-
ceptor Squadrons have implemented POMO,
the 57th FIS is the first F-4 squadron
to go into the program.
The 57th FIS will begin the POMO pro-
gram on Dec. 1. Under the existing
system, six maintenance functions report
directly to the Deputy Commander for
Maintenance. They are quality control,
maintenance control, organizational
maintenance, field maintenance, avion-
ics maintenance and munitions mainten-
ance.
Under the new system, organizational
maintenance has been redesignated air-
craft generation branch (AGB) and field
maintenance, avionics maintenance and
munitions have been consolidated into
the component repair branch (CRB).
The major change is that AGB will
pick up the majority of specialists from
the field maintenance, avionics and wea-
pons branches. These specialists will
work directly with the crew chiefs in a
team effort. They will be checked out
in crew chief functions such as pre-
flight, launch, recovery and postflight.
At the same time, the crew chiefs
will be cross-trained to perform some
types of specialist functions. The
specialists who do not transfer to the
AGB will receive cross utilization
training (CUT) into other shop functions
within the CRB.
Under POMO, fewer specialists are re-
quired to complete a repair. When an
aircraft problem occurs, a specialist
in the appropriate area may, in some
cases, be required to determine the
cause of the malfunction. Then any mem-
ber of AGB will effect repairs, after
which the job may be inspected by a
specialist. For example, an engine may
be removed, repaired, inspected and re-
installed by cross-training personnel.
Instead of requiring four or five spec-
ialists, only one is needed.
Chief Master Sergeant James A. Ray
Jr., 57th Aircraft Maintenace Superin-
tendent, and POMO program contact, said
the biggest problem will be getting per-
sonnel familiar with the program, task
qualified and cross-trained into other
areas.
The Air Force is presently conducting
a survey to determine what additional
promotion considerations should be given
to individuals who have given extra
effort to cross train and are designated
a program asset.
Supervisors/managers will also re-
ceive added consideration because pro-
gram effectiveness will weigh heavily
on personnel involvement in the program.
Mail delays expected
Keflavik personnel may experience
some delay in receiving mail during the
Christmas season according to recent
information received from the Chief of
Naval Operations and the Fleet Post
Office.
The reason for the delay is that
many business firms are going to use
air freight because of the on-going
East Coast Longshoreman's strike whicu
is affecting ocean shipping. This means
that there will be less room on com-
mercial aircraft for mail. Consequently
mail to Iceland will have to be diverted
to MAC flights causing some delays in
receiving parcels, newspapers, magazines,
and bulk mail. Priority mail and first
class letter mail should continue to ar-
rive on a daily basis.
NATO Base personnel are encouraged to
inform their correspondents of the situa-
tion in order to expidite mail movement
to Iceland.
Mail to Alaska and Hawaii
Any mail going to military installa-
tion in Alaska and Hawaii can no longer
use FPO addresses and zip codes. Mail to
these locations must now use the geogra-
phical location with new zip codes.
Complete addresses to be used are con-
tained in Chief on Naval Operations mes-
sage 141750Z of November 1977. You maY
also call the Post Office at 7981.