Team Travis’ Manpower and Organization Flight takes first across the Air Force

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jonathon Carnell
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The Manpower and Organization Flight won the Force Support Capabilities Award for 2018, crowning them the U.S. Air Forces’ best.

The flight which is part of the 60th Force Support Squadron was recognized for validating 1,300 manning positions and $114 million worth of contracts to uphold Travis’ mission needs and requirements, among other achievements.

“Travis is a busy place,” said Bill “Doc” Bowers, manpower flight chief. “Travis’ mission is nonstop and our job is to ensure Travis has the correct number of staff to meet the mission requirements.”

It takes the combined effort from this team to accomplish its mission of fulfilling and managing all 60th Air Mobility Wing active duty and civilian positions.

“Our team has a similar mindset,” Bowers said. “We have a job to do and we will see it through in support of our commanders, Airmen and civilians.”

The manpower flight is a good resource for commanders looking for ways to meet their mission requirements.

“We give relevant and useful information to the commanders,” said Robert Marquez, manpower analyst. “If we aren’t providing relevant advice to commanders, we aren’t doing our job right, so we make sure we look at manpower with an open mind.”

The flight takes its job to a personal level.

“There hasn’t been a day of regret since I decided to cross-train into manpower,” said Senior Airman Jonneroger Cadua, manpower analyst. “I love the work I do and the team I work with. With previous experience in aircraft maintenance, I was able to contribute some knowledge into the manpower world thus providing various inputs to accurately quantify data.”

Cadua has worked in manpower for the past 20 months of his Air Force career and said being a part of a team that helps build other teams has been rewarding.

“The folks I work with are awesome and I am blessed to have them,” Cadua said. “The training, mentorship and knowledge received from this office is incredible. Being a part of the team who was able to take the Air Force level award is breathtaking.”

Although it may be unknown to many, the manpower flight is a vital resource to management and productivity which helps make Travis’ mission possible, Cadua said.

“Their ability to openly work with customers, analyze data, interpret the data and articulate the data in a way that is easily understood by their customers, up and down the chain of command is what sets them apart from other manpower flights in the Air Force,” said Lt. Col. Nathan Williams, 60th FSS commander. “No task is too large and they never shy away from the hard tasks of going the extra mile to get the ‘right’ answer as opposed to the easy answer.”

Getting the “right” answer can take a lot of work.

The Continuous Process Improvement section of manpower assists to ensure mission requirements are aware of potential waste. When requested, CPI helps break down the mission of units to ensure product effectiveness is at its full potential.

“You have to have an innovation mindset to say, ‘What if we do this differently instead of the way we have always done it?’” said Steven Longino, CPI manager. “We live in a time where our resources need to be more impactful.”

CPI helps eliminate steps that aren’t adding value to the end product of a mission.

“CPI and innovation are two sides of the same coin,” Longino said. “CPI basically confirms the innovation that establishes a more reliable, lethal and agile force while eliminating as much waste as possible.”

The manpower flight continues to work cohesively for Travis so the mission requirements are met and job is completed.