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ACAMC Meeting Minutes, 18 Jul 2009

To: ACAMC Membership July 18, 2009

Subject: ACAMC Meeting Minutes

1. Date, Time, Location: July 18, 2009, 1:15 pm (1315 hours), Langley AFB, HQ ACC/A4W Conference Room.

2. Purpose: General membership meeting. The ACAMC General Membership meeting was conducted and the group socialized with a Burger burn after the meeting.

3. Attendees: A quorum was present (11 of 19 members – 5 proxies) and 2 Associate members.

PRESENT
Michael Gavin (President)
Jack Miller – (Vice President)
Wilbur McCullough – Proxy (Secretary/Treasurer)
Michael Robertson – Proxy
Richard Pennington
Kevin Lewis
George Heinlein
Tom McConnell – Proxy
Frank Waterman – Proxy
Yvonne Watts – Proxy
Eddie Fuquay – New Member

ASSOCIATES
TJ Jensen (Associate)
John Usefara (Associate)

4. The following Agenda Items were discussed:

a. The President skimmed the minutes from the March 28, 2009 meeting.
i. Motion to accept – Kevin Lewis
ii. Seconded – George Heinlein
iii. Unanimously approved.
b. The President provided a brief fiscal status from the recent LCFU Statement. Overall fiscal health of the ACAMC is good with a current balance of $851.65. Over the quarter we had deposits of $161.00 from coin sales. Outlays were for Post Office box ($60) and SJ awards ($50). AFCOMAC acknowledge receipt of the $250.00 check for the Richard Gauvin Memorial Fund and sent a letter of thanks to our Chapter. Both Jerry Merichko and Eddie Fuquay joined the ranks of the ACA and paid ACA and ACAMC dues. Numbered coins were provided (29/30). This is the last of our numbered coins so at the next coin order and additional 10 numbered coins will be ordered. The Chapter still has numerous ACAVC shirts and coins for sale. All five trailer hitches covers ordered from Roger Jennings at cost have been sold (non-profit). Four of 12 ACAMC hats were sold ($15 per) at the meeting and the funds went to Mike Gavin whom is carrying that cost as a non-profit – member requested initiative. A complete fiscal report will be sent with minutes after the meeting.
i. Motion to accept fiscal report as presented – George Heinlein
ii. Seconded – Kevin Lewis.
iii. Unanimously approved.

5. Old Business:

a. Awards Committee:
– The Chapter presented quarterly Awards to MSgt Huff at Seymour-Johnson AFB, NC.
— CMSgt Munroe at SJ will present the Award Pkg to MSgt Huff at the end of the month

b. Membership: The President sent out an email note to some of the other AMMO Chiefs in our region soliciting their participation. We received positive feedback from the email and hope to have increased participation at the next meeting. It was noted that our Chapter Membership has risen significantly since we established the 1st ACA Chapter in 2003. We started with 8 members and have increased to 19 active members. We welcome the following new members:
– Jerry Merichko
– Eddie Fuquay

c. Fundraising: The coins sales continue to do well and with the recent CAF Munitions Conference sales spiked very high. We took in $216 from coin sales this quarter. All members should continue to look for ways to raise funds for our Chapter.

d. Sunset Committee: There have been numerous health issues recently with our Chapter members and within the munitions community. It was great to have Rich Pennington back in the fold after his recent medical situation. We continue to think about John Cecere who has been facing some medical challenges. Mike read a medical update on the injured AMMO Troop (John) from SJ who was hit by a door. It was discussed that another AMMO troop (Chris Parks) had went to Wilford Hall and his medical update is as follows:

OUTSTANDING NEWS! The results are in from the biopsy on Chris’s chest….benign and not related to the problem with his thyroid. There is a consult in the system to talk about the removal of this mass because it is active (“collecting things”). Additionally, there are no other spots than those in his neck. The plan remains the same… surgery on 22 Jul 09 (next Wednesday) to partially remove his thyroid. Once tests come back from that, they will determine the course of action to take on the remaining spots in his neck.

e. Constitution and Bylaws: At the last ACAMC Chapter meeting a line by line review of the By-Laws was conducted. The cover page will be signed and the entire package will be provided to the ACA for approval and posting to the site.

6. New Business:
a. ACAMC Chapter By-Laws are ready to be forwarded to the ACA for Approval. Signature page was signed by both the President and Vice President in the presence of the attending members and will be scanned and sent to our Sec/Treasurer for his signature.
b. There was a good discussion around Rich Pennington’s topic submission regarding ACAMC recognition of awards outside the Quarterly/Annual unit awards the membership agreed to support with cover letter, Certificate, coin and $50 cash award. Overall the membership agrees that any recognition we can provide gives the group positive recognition to our great troops that are at the top of their game. It was agreed that the Chapter will provide a cover letter, recognition certificate and Chapter coin to these great troops. The 1st such winner is SSgt Chappell (1st EMS) as the Air Force 2008 AMRAAM Outstanding Performer. There was additional discussion regarding the ACA mother ship and the recognition they should be providing to the AMMO community winners at the Air Force level.
c. John Matthews submitted a discussion topic regarding ACAMC involvement in a 50th (Golden) Anniversary Dinner function similar to the event being sponsored at Wright-Patterson AFB by their base Chiefs Group. Mike Gavin briefed he had contacted the Langley AFB Chief Group and they had indicated there was going to be a base event. Mike went to the Chiefs Website and did not see a date posted yet. The ACAMC membership discussed this at length and the overall feeling was this is a base type event and would be way to large for a Chapter to take on and was not an ACA specific function. This is a good input and all agreed to approach it from two directions as follows:
Option A: Once the base event has been determined the key dates will be sent out to our membership and our membership can attend if they desire.
Option B: During the annual meeting/social at Bill McCullough’s home in Dec we could take a time out and have a general discussion on where we as Chiefs feel we have come from over the years to recognize this very significant event.
d. The new CMSgt of the Air Force Announcement was provided to the membership: CMSgt James A Roy has taken the AF enlisted helm.
e. Mike Gavin informed the group that there had been a recent incident regarding a public email and it was discussed that no one should make off-hand comments on public emails as there is a possibility that someone could take offense. The Chapter considers this a dead issue.
f. AMMO Networking: It was discussed that the group overall should continue to provide a networking venue for our folks retiring and looking for future employment. Yvonne Watts was picked up at PAX River as a direct result of networking within our community.
g. Frank Waterman asked if Proxy’s could be made to stand longer than one meeting. The issue was discussed and the general consensus was that for meeting protocol a new proxy should be submitted for each meeting.
h. Phil Kennedy sent in an item about trying to get an Air Force license plate for Virginia. The group thought this was a good idea and it should be doable with a large quantity of Air Force personnel being stationed in Virginia. We need to get the details on how this process works. The group recommended Phil dig into this.
– Update: None provided
i. Phil also asked the group to approach the ACA regarding getting a marble bench dedicated to Ammo at the Air Force Aerospace Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. John Cecere took this on as an action item. (Post-meeting Note: John passed the request to Fred and it will be discussed/considered as a revision to the ACA strategic plan.)
– Update: None provided
j. Mike Gavin briefed that John Matthews had passed the torch on the ACA Newsletter to Pat Adams. Rich Pennington asked that more submissions be sent in. Mike will submit an ACAMAC update whenever a call for topics comes out.
k. Mike Gavin informed the group that Jack Miller’s tenure as VP is about to expire (2 yrs). He asked the group to think about possible nominees. Jack Miller suggested that nominations should be submitted by the December meeting/social at Wilbur McCullough’s home in preparation for an election process in Jan 2010. Mike will send out a call for submissions.
l. Rich Pennington briefed the group on the following:
— The 2010 ACA Reunion is still in planning phase and the date has not been determined, but it will be in the Fort Walton Beach area.
— ACA is entertaining a motion to extend the term of office for ACA Officers to two years
— Rich thanked the group for the heartfelt cards, emails, and phone calls – he says he’s doing well and now back at work
m. It was noted that we have an ACAMAC member (CMSgt Kevin Lewis) retiring in Oct 09.

7. The meeting was adjourned at 2:15 pm (14:15 hrs).
i. Motion to adjourn – Mike Gavin.
ii. Seconded – Jack Miller.
iii. Adjourned.

8. We look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting planned for Sept, 2009 at Mike
Robertson’s home. The date and directions to follow will be sent out in the next few weeks.

9. The group socialized with a cookout for a few hours and ate some food donated by the Chapter and Mike Gavin (burgers, hotdogs, chips, and beverages). Thanks to all for their active participation and great inputs! This Chapter continues to do things right and sets a standard for other ACA organizations to follow.

//signed//
Michael R Gavin
President, ACAMC

General Leo Marquez

Friends,

Please take the time to let one of AMMO’s heroes know there are hundreds if not thousands of us out here who know of and have benefited from General Marquez’s leadership. As the emails below attest he has had a tremendous impact fostering the professionalism of the AMMO career field. Please send him an email to let him know he has a friend in his corner as he fights his cancer.

Leo Marquez

For those wishing to send a card the General’s address is:

10508 Griffith Park Dr
Albuquerque NM 87123

General Marquez’s email:

Subject: dear friends

I am sorry to inform you that the cancer has  returned in maybe a more malevolent form.  They have been testing for a few weeks trying to isolate the specific form of lymphoma.  I am told there are many varieties.

I am now equipped with a port in my chest through with the chemo will be introduced.  I expect to begin treatment this week,

For now I am doing OK just dealing with the uncertainty  Having a hard time walking but no  serious pain

See you on the other side!

Thanks to Billie Campbell and John Matthews for passing this info along.

Gents:

See email below. Gen Marquez can use our help by sending him a card or email wishing him the very best recovery and hope for the future. He was the head speaker at our 4th reunion at Langley.

Wish him well.

v/r
John A. Matthews Sr., Contractor

I know Lt Gen Marquez… He is “our” maintenance and munitions General… He is a neat man, started AFCOMAC…

Billie Campbell

And this email from Kathleen Sheperd

Subject: Gen Leo Marquez Needs Prayer

Hello Friends,

Please take a few minutes to lift up Lieutenant General Leo Marquez (USAF Ret), a great Air Force warrior, in prayer.  His leadership in the aircraft and munitions maintenance world helped shape the Air Force maintenance professional community to what it is today.  We owe much to his vision.

One of the things I most remember was to initiate the “Maintenance
Professional of the Year” award (now named after him) to recognize the hard work and long hours of the aircraft and munitions maintenance personnel at all grade levels.  Within a few years many other Air Force specialties followed his idea – but General Marquez was the man who started the recognition first with maintenance, then with supply, communications electronics, etc.

General Marquez has a recurrence of cancer – lymphoma and it is serious.  I can’t provide more details than this – his email caught our family off guard.  I think the general would be comforted to know there are so many people out there praying for his recovery.

Thanks so much,

Kathie
Kathleen Sheperd, Ctr (MacAulay Brown)
Massive Ordnance Penetrator QRC, Logistics Eglin AFB, FL
Tel: 850-883-2147 (DSN-875)

NEW AMMO CHIEFS

Below are the AMMO Chiefs’ names from the 2009 Chiefs’ Promotion list released today. 

BARCUS, Patrick E               Langley

HRYNIEWIECKI, Kevin      Beale

JACKSON, Kenneth, E         Seymour-Johnson

JONES, Sean, C                       Hill

KOBERSTEIN, Anthony    Andersen

NIKOLAS, Stuart, R.            Hickam

NIXON, David, M.                Ramstein

OUZTS, Timothy M               Scott

SIMS, Nick                                Eglin

WILBER, MICHAEL, A         Elmendorf

WILKERSON, William          Misawa

Eleven new AMMO Chiefs, that in itself is a great statistic. Congratulations to all of you!

AMMO HUAH!

First Ammo Chief Master Sergeant’s

As we approach the 50th Anniversary of the rank of Chief Master Sergeant it is an opportune time to identify and honor the Air Forces first Ammo Chief’s. This has been attempted on several occasions since the forming of the Ammo Chief’s Association and we have not been able to pin down a specific individual. The following link is to the Chief Promotion Roster for the first cycle of CMSgt’s in 1959; individuals were selected and promoted with dates of rank of 1 December 1959 and 1 June 1960:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/1420999/US-Air-Force-Original20Chief20List20all201700

I have identified two Ammo Chiefs on the 1 June 60 list, i.e. CMSgt Wilbur R. Barrentine and CMSgt Harold Prevett.

We would appreciate everyone browsing through the lists and see if you recognize any other names that can be included as the First Ammo Chiefs.

We should keep in mind that at the time they were promoted the first Chief’s may have been  462’s as SAC administratively converted all SAC 461X0s to 462 in 59/60. Also at those days the EOD AFSC was 461X1 and 9-levels moved freely between EOD and Ammo as you had to be Ammo to become EOD

As a point of interest on the 1 June 60 list is CMSgt Walter Bell (EOD 461X1). Chief Bell was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. I have recently learned of two other Ammo troops who were on the Bataan Death March, Lt Col Herb Tyson and SSgt Jessie White. If anyone out there knows of others please let us know so we can start to compile a “Roll of Honor”.

Responses to Fred at Fred Ohern or ACA Secretary.

An end of an era – M117 bombs depart RAF Welford

Posted 9/9/2009   Updated 9/9/2009 Email story   Print story

by Master Sgt. Kenneth C. Burnett
420th Munitions Squadron Operations Flight Chief

9/9/2009 – RAF WELFORD, United Kingdom — The final day has come! The last remaining M117 General Purpose Bombs at the 420th Munitions Squadron, Royal Air Force Welford were removed Sept. 2. 

This journey began over a year ago with Headquarters United States Air Forces in Europe soliciting for a contractor to agree to demilitarize 3,509 bombs. As RAF Welford is the command’s forward operating location for bomber aircraft, it was the optimum location for storing the M117 bombs until the decision was made to demilitarize the bombs. The accomplishment of shipping the M117s for demilitarization served three-fold for the Welford storage site: disposing of outdated munitions, reducing net explosive weight as directed by command, and eliminating munitions from outside storage to meet 3rd Air Force’s agreement with the United Kingdom government. 

The M117 is a 750 pound general purpose bomb with an explosive weight of 403 pounds and is smaller in comparison to mark 80 series bombs. It was standard arsenal for various 1950s aircraft that have been since retired. Until recently the everlasting B-52 Stratofortress carried the M117. The M117 bombs were vital weapons dropped extensively in the Vietnam and Gulf wars. However, the bombs are no longer a component of the Department of Defense supply inventory, hence, the reason for M117 Demilitarization Project. 

The M117 contract was awarded at end of 2008 to a Norway company for $2.3 million and funded by Headquarters United States Air Forces in Europe and Air Force Materiel Command. On March 1, RAF Welford was charged by headquarters to stow 3,509 bombs into International Organization for Standardization containers for shipment with a deadline of March 31.
 
This was an enormous task that required a concise plan of action with focused logistics. This demilitarization operation served two purposes, which was to reduce the net explosive weight footprint and store the remaining munitions inventory into facilities. With this, began the M117 demilitarization project which centered on strict in transit visibility by the men and women of the 420th Munitions Squadron. 

The senior noncommissioned officers of the 420th Munitions Squadron were the staple for constructing a game plan that led to the successful transportation of 3,509 M117 bombs. The game plan had to factor these bombs were exposed to inclement weather for years, causing the wooden pallets to degrade made forklift and movement operations challenging. Additionally, time-consuming efforts were required with precision cut wood to block and brace these assets for safe transport. Simultaneously while this demilitarization operation was occurring, with 50 percent manning reduction we enabled 15 million dollars facility demolition/renovation projects to stay on schedule by providing security escort to contractors that were working throughout the 806 acre munitions storage area. Nevertheless, a total of 584 triple stacks/3,509 bombs had to be banded in accordance with United States Army shipping requirements. 

The munitions personnel were able thrust forward with building the blocking and bracing (a total of 20,000 board feet of lumber valued at $32,000), banded stacked pallets (32 feet of banding per triple stacked totaled 18,688 feet) and moved 74 empty ISOs while demolition/renovation contractors worked. We capitalized on the one-hour mandatory contractor breaks, by reallocating munitions personnel to stack bomb pallets, and moved the pallets to ISOs. Before executing the plan of operation, we completed a test in the first week of March 2009 loading eight triple stacks of M117 bombs (i.e., totaling 48 M117 per ISO), which took 4 hours. By the time March 23 came, 420th Munitions Squadron personnel were able to load an ISO in less than 30 minutes. During contractor work from March 1-20, which occurred in the Munitions Storage Area, munitions personnel were able to load 25 of 74 ISOs. On March 23, the contractors relocated their work outside the storage area, so crews were able to load an average of 12 ISOs per day. On a drizzling afternoon of March 26, Colonel Kimberly K. Toney witnessed the 74th ISO loaded and all munitions were stored indoors, and the M117s positioned for out shipment surpassed the headquarters’ deadline five days ahead of schedule. 

In the following months, all 74 ISOs were prepared and taken to the Great Oakley Port near Harwich for shipment to their demilitarization site. The port’s intake capacity was limited, thus the M117 shipment had to be piecemealed a few days each week for the past four months, which brings us to September 2nd with the last four ISOs of M117 bombs departing Royal Air Force Welford for good. 

This was an extraordinary operation for the men and women of the 420th Munitions Squadron. During this entire process, the Airmen found innovative ways to streamline the process and cut load time by 50 percent. Over 5,000 man-hours were expended during the loading and escorting, all the while 30,000 thousand dollars plus saved in transportation costs. Moreover, zero time and money lost with contractors working on 15 million dollars on renovation projects. As a team, we stood together, worked diligently, and conquered the task levied on us with zeal. We had zero mishap incidents throughout the M117 demilitarization project. As such the 501st Combat Support Wing Commander awarded all 52 members of the 420th Munitions Squadron the Air Force Achievement Medal for precision movement operations. The M117 General Purpose Bomb served its nations well and must end the acquisition life cycle journey to make way for precision guided munitions of the 21st Century.

Ammo Troop Openings at KYANG

Good afternoon. I am writing in regards to some assistance I was hoping that the Ammo Chiefs Association could provide. I am currently TDY, but a Traditional member of the KYANG 123rd MXS. I spent an active duty tour at Beale as the Munitions Flight Commander, MASO, and Senior Officer Orientation Course instructor at AFCOMAC before joining the KYANG. We are searching for two Ammo troops to fill vacant slots within our manning. Both slots are Traditional Guardsman positions—1 TSgt and 1 SSgt. We need qualified troops because currently we have only 1 qualified 7 level and myself (traditionally a 21M by trade) with Ammo experience and a MSgt who is cross training into the 2W0 career field. I was hoping that the Ammo Chiefs Association could get the word out for me to Ammo troops looking to separate from active duty or whom are separated and would like to join as Traditional KY Air Guard members.
Thank you in advance,

Craig T. Mohr, Captain, USAF; Action Officer, AFMC/A4M; 4375 Chidlaw Road; Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433

DSN: 674-3934

COMM: 937-904-3934

[email protected]