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May Commander's Corner

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Charles Blount II
  • 169th Logistics Readiness Squadron
MCENTIRE JOINT NATIONAL GUARD BASE, S.C. --  Let me start off with expressing to all what an honor it is to be able to serve alongside such a fine group of men and women who continue to prove to the world why the South Carolina Air National Guard is the best unit in the Air National Guard and the United States Air Force. It takes great sacrifice to put the mission first. I thank each and every one of you for your continued commitment to making our unit extraordinary. No matter whether you are the newest Airman or the longest serving general, every single one of us has a vital role in ensuring the completion of our tasked mission. 

I started my career here at McEntire on April 5th 1985 much like a lot of you as a high school senior in the student flight, waiting to graduate and then attend basic training. Now I have the privilege to serve as the Logistics Readiness Squadron commander. Over the past 31 years, I have seen tremendous change in our organization and the way we do business. Along the way, there where those who embraced the changes, jumped on board and took the ball and ran with it and then there where those that dug their heels in and resisted. It is pretty easy to figure out what happen to the ones who dug in. There are plenty more changes to come and I encourage each and every one of you to embrace the changes and ask, "put me in coach".

The words "do more with less" has become an all too familiar phrase. Unfortunately the state of the world and our country have stressed the budget to its limits which will inevitably cause more change for you to adapt and overcome. As the LRS commander, one of my responsibilities is to ensure all of the wings assets are accounted for. This is where I need your help.  In order for our wing to adapt to the fiscal restraints, we all need to be good stewards of the wing's equipment. All personnel should be instructed in the proper care and safeguarding of supplies and equipment. This means performing equipment inventories at least annually or upon change of custodians and making sure accountability listings (CA/CRL, R15, RVL) are signed and turned in to the LRS Equipment Accountability Office. Another key to maintaining accountability of the wing's equipment is when the unit returns from a deployment, the deployed custodians need to perform a 100% inventory of returning items to verify all the equipment and supplies made it back and are accounted for. 

You can help by ensuring the immediate repair or turn-in of unserviceable items, eliminating the hoarding of any supplies or equipment through the prompt turn-in of excess items along with requesting change of authorizations for equipment when a function is reduced, eliminated, or a mission change occurs. Doing this will enable the supply chain to work more efficiently across the entire Air Force. The reward for McEntire is the reduction of the overall supply budget, leaving money available for other vital mission critical needs. 

In closing, if everyone in the wing is willing to accept my challenge to be better stewards of our equipment and make sure all of our future equipment and supply purchases are economically sound, McEntire will be in a much better fiscal state. We will be ready to take on those changes, which are enviably going to come through the front gate, head on and continue the McEntire tradition of "Semper Primus".