All posts by Mike Robertson

General Information

Logistics Officer’s Association (LOA) offers revised Scholarship Opportunities for Enlisted Troops

The Logistics Officer’s Association has revised their Scholarship program and offers expanded opportunities to Enlisted Troops. Read more at the links included below:

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From: Lt Col Kevin Sampels, LOA Vice President [vicepres@loanational.org]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 7:48 AM
Subject: LOA Announcement: President & CFO Nominations Due and LOA Scholarships Program update

Fellow Loggies,

Two issues to quickly pass on.

The LOA Scholarship Program has been significantly revised and is now available for your review at http://www.loanational.org/about/guidance.php.  The primary changes include expanding the eligibility criteria, considerably increasing the award amount, and revising the application package to include a paper authored by the applicant.  These changes were made to promote advanced education to an even wider audience, as well as allow our members the opportunity to shape our community through exploring and offering solutions to real-world logistics challenges.

v/r

Lt Col Kevin Sampels

Vice President, Logistics Officer Association

www.loanational.org | 2011 LOA National Conference 10-13 October – Ft Worth, Texas

Issues of Interest

Air Force Announces 2011 Accession Quotas for Prior Service AMMO Troops (2W0) with Specific Years of Completed Service

In FY2011 the U.S. Air Force is accessing Prior Service AMMO Troops (2W0XX) with Specific Years of Completed Service.  This is being done to fill gaps in experience in the workforce that cannot be satisfied through normal accessions and workforce sustaining actions.  The chart below identifies the completed years of service required to be eligible and the number of prior service 2W0XX the USAF is seeking to bring back in to the active ranks.

For Example in the chart below: The Air Force can access up to 44 prior 2W0XX troops with 12 years of prior completed service and 105 AMMO troops with 16 years of completed service.  This is a great opportunity for troops that have good service records separated and are having second thoughts about their decision.

Completed Years of Service

AFSC 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 19
2W0X1 14 44 26 11 10 105 4 13

The Chief responsible for Air Force Accessions (AF/A1PT) put it this way.  “You have an individual who left the team and they’ve been a civilian for 2 years and now realize the grass isn’t greener.”  They visit the local recruiter and find out that based on their years of service (YOS) for 2W0 there may be eligible to re-join the USAF as an AMMO Troop.  And, they find that their DD Form 214 RE code and separation code both have zero unfavorable impacts (e.g., previous EPRs don’t describe a “BAD ACTOR”) and the Recruiting Service (RS) friends say their okay; then this troop would be a good candidate.  The Recruiting Service Prior Service team will forward the package for review/approval. One note should be highlighted; that is there are no waivers of the accession criteria for Prior Service. You either meet the criteria or you don’t.

Additionally, the Air Force is allowing Prior Service airman to Retrain into one of the specialties listed in the chart below:

FY11 Prior Service Retraining Opportunities
AFSC Slots
1C231 – Combat Control (CCT) 3
1C431 – Tactical Air Control Party (TAC-P) 2
1T031 – Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) 7
1T231 – Pararescue (PJ) 3
1U031 – Unmanned Aerial Systems Sensor Operator 5
3E831 – Explosive Ordanance Disposal (EOD) 4
3P031B – Security Forces Combat Arms 25
6C031 – Contracting 30
Total Retraining Opportunities 79

For more information and specific eligibility requirements, contact the Munitions Career Field Manager, Chief Scott Heisterkamp (AF/A4LW) at DSN: 225-0780 or Comm: (703) 695-0780 or contact either the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) or the Air Force Recruiting Service (AFRS).

ACA Chapter News, ACA Mid Atlantic Chapter, ACA Virginia Chapter, General Information, Issues of Interest

ACA Mid-Atlantic Chapter 2011 Calendar of Events

2011

ACAMC Calendar of Events

 

January 4:  Suspense for Richard Gauvin Memorial Fund donation

January 15:  Annual awards notification

January 15:  Annual Reports due to ACA

January 31:  Dues are due to ACA and ACAMC (as applicable)

March 12:  Quarterly meeting (Langley AFB – TBD)

June 18:  Quarterly meeting (Langley AFB – TBD)

September/October:  Quarterly meeting/fall social (Mike Robertson’s house).  Initiate nomination process for Vice President

October 14:  Send out First Term Ammo Troop award request letters

November 1:  Send out requests for “Christmas Ammo Troop in Need” candidates

November 19:  Suspense for First Term Ammo Troop award inputs

December 3 or 10:  Quarterly meeting/Christmas social (Bill McCullough’s house).  Hold election for Vice President.

December 21:  “Christmas Ammo Troop in Need” shopping completed by this date

ACA Chapter News, ACA Mid Atlantic Chapter, ACA Virginia Chapter, General Information

ACA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Meeting Minutes – 4 Dec 2010

ACAMC Membership December 15, 2010

Subject: ACAMC Meeting Minutes

1.  Date, Time, Location:  December 4, 2010, 1:14pm (1314 hours), HQ ACC building, Langley AFB., VA.

2.  Purpose:  General membership meeting.

3.  Attendees:  A quorum was present (13 of 18 voting members including 5 proxies).

PRESENT    

Michael Gavin – (President)
Mike Robertson – (Vice President)
Wilbur McCullough – (Secretary/Treasurer)
John Matthews

Richard Pennington

Rick Follett

Steve Bowersox

Pat Barcus

Frank Waterman (Proxy)

Phil Kennedy (Proxy)
Ed Weisheit (Proxy)

Jack Miller (Proxy)

Jerry Merichko (Proxy)

ASSOCIATES

Jeff Bunney

4.  The following Agenda Items were discussed:

a.  The president, Mike Gavin, opened up the meeting and welcomed Steve Bowersox and Pat Barcus to the ACAMC.

b.  The Secretary presented the minutes from the September 18, 2010 meeting.

i.            Motion to accept – Rich Pennington

ii.            Seconded – Rick Follett

iii.            Unanimously approved.

b.  The Treasurer provided a detailed fiscal update (attached).  Our current balance of $781.45 was supported by coin sales of $60.00, shirt sales of $20.00 and the 2011 dues for Pat Barcus and Yvonne Watts.  Since the September meeting, we disbursed $50.00 for flowers for Terry “T.C.” Conor’s funeral and donated $50.00 to the Richard Gauvin Memorial Scholarship Fund in lieu of a retirement plaque for Dan Munro.  We have two $50.00 checks outstanding for SSgt Mittman’s and SMSgt Kegg’s awards.  During the meeting, we sold $41.00 in coins, a pen for $6.00, received donations of $200.00, collected $34.00 from resold yard sale items, and collected $175.00 in ACAMC dues and $10.00 in ACA dues.  The total for deposit was $485.00

i. Motion to accept – Mike Gavin

ii. Seconded – Pat Barcus

iii. Unanimously approved.

5.  Old Business:

a.  Awards Committee:  SSgt Mittman at Seymour-Johnson AFB won the 3rd Quarter ACC level award.  SMSgt Kegg from Seymour-Johnson AFB won the Gen. Leo Marquez award for the Supervisor-Manager category.  Thanks to Mike Gavin for generating the packages.  Chief Torelli is to make the presentations for the chapter.  The annual award winners should be announced by January 15th.

b.  Membership:  We picked up Steve Bowersox as a new member.  Our current tally is 18 Ammo Chiefs plus 3 Associate members.  Rich Pennington mentioned he ran into Mike Lawhorne at the airport and spoke to him about the ACAMC

c.  Fundraising:  The new coins are in and will be sold for $10.00 each.  These are our main source of revenue.  Members may take coins on consignment to have available as sales opportunities arise (Mike Robertson has 5 coins).  The group decided to sell the old coins for $5.00 each.  The new numbered coins are in.  The numbers appear on the rim of the coin and are difficult to see.  Discussion of another possible yard sale was brought up.  2011 dues are due for the ACAMC.  If you have not already paid, please remit your $25.00 to:  ACAMC,  P.O. Box 65944,  Hampton, VA  23665-5944.  To be a member of the ACAMC, you must be a member in good standing of the ACA.  Annual dues are $25.00 and lifetime dues are $250.00 (selectees are $10.00 and $200.00, respectively).  If you owe the ACA dues, please mail to us at the above address or mail them directly to:  Ammo Chiefs Association (Attn: Treasurer), 6046 SW 98 Loop, Ocala, FL 34476.

d.  Sunset Committee:  The Ammo community lost MSgt Terry “T.C.” Conor to cancer.  John Matthews got an e-mail from Gen. Marquez and he seems to be doing better.  The group signed a get well card for George Heinlein who is laid up.  Dan Munro’s retirement ceremony was held on October 8th.

e.  Participation in ACAMC meetings:  Good attendance at this meeting.  The proxies we received ensured a quorum was present and permitted the chapter to legally conduct business.

f.  ACA reunion update.  Rich Pennington gave us an update (attached).  He told the group, about giving Bill Swezey the Shell and Flame award.  There was a great gathering at the “Hell ‘n Back” bar.  The second Ammo plaque was presented at the Air Armament Museum.  The ACA discussed buying two more plaques – one for the Enlisted Heritage Hall at Gunter AFS and the other at the museum at the old Lowry AFB.  The ACA members discussed extending office terms for 1 year.  Options are open for the location and date of the 2012 reunion.  The then-ACAVC hosted the reunion here in 2004.

g.  Care package to Ed Weisheit.  We received an e-mail from Ed and he received the package.  The items were distributed among the Ammo troops and were well received.

h.  Update ACA web site.  Rick Follett will be contacting Rich McVey on this.  The contract is for 2 more years at $7.00 per month.  Jim Shelingoski is pushing for another company to do the site.  Rick will try to keep up with what is currently being used.  He will have to get permissions to load information and make updates.

i.  The inclusion of the Richard Gauvin Memorial Scholarship Fund in the CFC is being worked by Chief Hryniewiecki.  More to follow.

j.  AFCOMAC 25th Anniversary.  There is talk in trying to do this in conjunction with the curriculum review (before or after).  Steve will try to get with Chief Arnold and/or Heisterkamp on this.

6.  New Business:

a.  The group reviewed the three packages from Langley AFB for the Ammo Troops in Need program.  We selected two worthy recipients.  No packages were received from any other installations.  Mike Gavin and Steve volunteered to take the troops out on a shopping trip. Mike Gavin made a motion to increase the pot for the potential recipients based on our current fiscal situation.  The group discussed this and decided to keep it the same (approximately $400.00 per year).  The total would be split among the selected candidates. (Post-meeting note:  Both recipients were taken to Wal Mart to shop on December 10th.  Mike and Steve bought lunch for the families.  Checks were written to cover the personal shopping trip expenditures by our members.)

b.  Bill was asked to provide the chapter Shell and Flame inputs.  Bill promised to send the bullets out on December 6th.

c.  There were no Sharp Ammo Troop nominations received by the chapter.

d.  The 2011 calendar of events was reviewed (attached).  Tentative meeting dates were made and the rationale was aired.  The addition of dues submissions and election suspenses was added.

e.  The 2011 budget was reviewed.  We anticipate getting rid of the P.O. box to save some money.  Additionally, the awards programs are one of our most uncertain expenses.  We went from zero awards for a couple of years to seven this year.  A question was raised about donations.  This is an open entry since we cannot forecast individuals’ desires to donate.  Additionally, we may have corporate donations for reunions and fund-raisers.

f.  The floor was opened for new business.

a).  Steve mentioned the web site Ammotroops.com and Ammolocker.com.  He said there might be some utility in getting the chapter on Facebook.  Mike Robertson will look at what it takes to create a chapter identity.

b).  Bill wanted to clarify that the plaques provided by the ACA to the various museums were originally Phil Kennedy’s idea.  There was no mention of this in the ACA meeting notes.

c).  Bill presented a newspaper article regarding the effort to get Air Force specialty license plates in Virginia.  The AFA is taking this on.  This was also one of Phil’s ideas but was beyond the ability of the chapter to obtain the massive amount of committed purchasers.

d).  Presidential election.  Mike Gavin stated he was proud to serve as president of the chapter but must go.  He lauded the group for doing a lot of good things even though we are small.  He noted there always seem to be a lack of nominees for the officers and a core group of people continue to step forward.  He really enjoyed taking the troops shopping and writing the awards packages.  He has a lot on his plate and it is difficult doing it all.  Rich Pennington made a motion to nominate CMSgt Pat Barcus for chapter president.  Pat accepted the nomination.  John Matthews seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous.  Pat will assume the office of President as of January 1st.  Mike Gavin will work with Pat on the credit union account, keys for the mailbox, and other paperwork.

7.  The meeting was adjourned at 2:44 pm (1444 hours).

i. Motion to adjourn – Mike Gavin.

ii. Seconded – John Matthews.

iii. Adjourned by unanimous decision.

8.  The next meeting is tentatively planned for March 12, 2011 at Langley AFB (exact location TBD).

9.  The group chowed down on “non traditional” pot luck food provided by the membership.

//signed//

Wilbur C. McCullough III

Secretary, ACAMC

ACA Chapter News, ACA Mid Atlantic Chapter, ACA Virginia Chapter, AMMO Recognition, General Information, Issues of Interest

ACA Mid-Atlantic Chapter sends Care Package to Deployed AMMO Troops

On 30 Sep 2010, the AMMO Chief’s Association Mid-Atlantic Chapter sent a care package to the deployed AMMO troops at Bagram AB, Afghanistan who are supporting the 455 Air Expeditionary Wing’s mission and AMMO Flight.  It is our hope that this care package helped to make some AMMO Troop’s life a bit more pleasant.   This small token of our Chapter’s appreciation for their selfless contributions to our Air Force, the Munitions Community, and sacrifice to ensure our Air Force and nation remains strong.  Chief Ed Weisheit, a Mid-Atlantic Chapter member  is the deployed Munitions Flight Chief.