ORI mythbusters

  • Published
  • By Col. Tony Butters
  • 60 Operations Group commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  There's a popular show called Mythbusters which takes a common held belief and either proves it to be true or "busts" it as a myth. 

One example of this was when they investigated quicksand. A common belief they investigated was that if someone walked into a patch of quicksand, they would get "sucked" in and disappear to their death. During the episode, they determined quicksand is denser than water and had greater buoyancy, so while you may get stuck, you wouldn't get dragged under to your death. 

What does this have to do with the Operational Readiness Inspection? Well, there are a lot of statements on how an ORI is conducted, who or what will have an impact ... some are true and others are false. What I'd like to do is take some of these beliefs and either prove them correct or bust the myth. 

"I'm not deploying in the ORI, so I'm not really a player" 
Every person at Travis is an ORI player, whether active duty, Reserve, civilian, family member or retiree. If you work in the 60th or 349th Air Mobility Wing's and aren't deploying, I can guarantee you'll be helping someone who is deploying by picking up extra duties. Our partner organizations, families and retirees will feel the impact of the ORI and may have a bearing on its success or failure. One of our sister wings recently had their ORI, and they had three safety violations that all occurred prior to deployment. The violations were for people using cell phones while driving and for seat belts not being worn ... these violators were two family members and one retiree. The Inspector General isn't concerned if you wear a uniform, used to wear one, are married to someone who wears one or work with someone who wears one. In the end, Team Travis is being inspected and when you come through the gate, you are part of the team! Answer: Myth! 

"I need to study my Airman's Manual, know the basics and be able to find information when asked" 
Everyone should know the basics contained in the Airman's Manual. It is there to help us in peacetime, as well as wartime and the information makes us a better wingmen. The knowledge we learn from the Airman's Manual could be the difference in saving one of our fellow warriors or a loved one. The evaluators will be asking us questions out of the Airman's Manual and our ability to respond will reflect upon us. 
While we can look the information up, we need to know where to look and have a basic understanding of it as well. This is the same concept as when someone is being evaluated to determine if they have learned a new task or skill. If the person has to look everything up, your level of confidence in them drops off and you tend to ask more questions. If they nail it right off the bat and confirm it when they look it up, you tend to back off because they have demonstrated their knowledge. Answer: Truth! 

"My performance won't make a difference on whether we succeed or not during the ORI" 
Our ORI team is much like flying one of our KC-10 Extenders, C-5 Galaxys or C-17 Globemaster IIIs. Can we fly with a problem on the airplane, even with an engine shut down? Yes, but it is not optimal. Can we complete the mission? Maybe, depending upon many factors that could be out of our control. Can we fly as high or as fast with the loss of an engine than we can with all of our engines? No we can't. Just as losing an engine degrades the ability of our aircraft to complete its' mission, the Airman (regardless of rank) who doesn't take their job seriously or with a sense of urgency will degrade our ability to complete our mission. Will we succeed if someone doesn't give 100 percent of their effort? Maybe, maybe not. It'll depend upon a lot of factors that will be out of our control. Why take that chance and be that weak link that failed. Answer: MYTH, a great big myth! 

The ORI is coming, we are ready and I say bring 'em on. We are the biggest, we are the best and let's show the IG how well we do our jobs. Remember...We are team Travis!