Arnold AFB, Tenn. July 20, 2020Vol. 67, No. 14

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE PAIDTULLAHOMA TNPERMIT NO. 29

Covid-19 and you

…Page 2 …Page 4

Safety Office enables Team AEDC to meet mission

Bluegrass and buds: Arnold AFB team members gather

for weekly jams…Page 6

AFMC leadership visits Arnold AFB, 704th TG

Master Sgt. Lashonda Morehead, left, flight chief of medical operations at Arnold Air Force Base, briefs Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr., right, commander, Air Force Materiel Command, and Chief Master Sgt. Stanley Cadell, command chief, Air Force Materiel Command, about the COVID-19 response at Arnold AFB, headquarters of Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), July 8. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jill Pickett)

Scott Meredith, left, technical advisor for AEDC Flight Sys-tems Branch, and Cadell walk past a rake installed in a test section of the 16-foot supersonic wind tunnel, which is used to characterize the flow in the tunnel, during a tour July 8 at Arnold Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jill Pickett) (This image has been altered by obscuring a badge for se-curity purposes.)

Col. Ernest Lincoln Bonner, chief of the AEDC Test Division, offers his thoughts to Bunch during a discussion on diver-sity and inclusion held by Bunch with AEDC senior leader-ship July 8 at Arnold Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jill Pickett)

Capt. Anthony Alt, left, 704th Test Support Squadron direc-tor of operations, briefs Bunch June 29 at the 704th Test Group on Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Collette Brooks)

Bunch receives a briefing from 2nd Lt. Chase Bilyou, White Sands Missile Range 586th Flight Test Squadron Detachment 1 weapon systems test manager, June 29 at the 704th Test Group on Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Collette Brooks)

By Deidre MoonAEDC Public Affairs

Sitting in front of a computer screen in the Propulsion Systems Evaluation Facility (PSEF) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, also known as PAX, some 700 miles away, PSEF test engineer Leo Rubio speaks to analysts and monitors test data as if he was ac-tually in the control room at Arnold Air Force Base.

Using the facility known as the Re-mote Data Room, or RDR, the Arnold Engineering Development Complex and PSEF engineers, who have been collabo-rating for close to a year, witnessed their efforts come to fruition during a test of the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine in the SL-3 test cell at Arnold in January.

According to Seth Beaman, NAVAIR aeropropulsion test analyst at Arnold, the development of the room was spear-headed by John Kelly, branch head for Test Operations and Facilities Engineer-ing at PAX River.

“Because the Navy and Air Force have a combined interest in the F-35 program, John Kelly brought the idea to AEDC as a way for his team at PAX River to remotely support test,” Beaman said. “The Remote Data Room serves as an extension of AEDC and provides a secure room for supporting various test programs.”

Before the F135 engine test, Kelly had some reservations on how the setup in Maryland, comprised of four monitors and two keyboards, would work.

“One thing we worried about was the latency when working in real time; will there be dropouts or will we see a num-ber of data points from a minute ago or a second ago,” Kelly said.

However, trial runs proved success-ful, with new data points being received within milliseconds.

Kelly said he would like to see the room eventually set up with four work stations and two big screen TVs so that they can see the engine running in the test cell.

Rubio mentioned that another added benefit of the Remote Data Room is that it will cut costs for both NAVAIR and AEDC because less travel will be needed between the two locations.

“It will reduce the cost for NAVAIR support of a test at AEDC (Arnold Air Force Base) since an individual is not required to physically be on TDY (tem-porary duty) for the duration of a test program,” he said. “This also provides analyst coverage for test programs that allow the AEDC analysts to be spread out across more programs since PAX en-gineers will be able to serve remotely as an analyst during a test.”

In preparation to assist with data analysis during engine tests, Rubio com-pleted AEDC training for basic data analysis.

“NAVAIR personnel at Arnold have already completed the training, but I am the first employee specifically from PAX to have completed the training with the Remote Data Room function in mind,” he said.

Rubio explained he had previously put his new training to use during another en-gine test at Arnold.

“The goal was to work with my coun-terpart at AEDC, Seth Beaman, to develop a training curriculum that would work to get NAVAIR personnel certified as basic-level analysts. The original plan was that I would go down to observe and possibly complete some of the training. I ended up

AEDC, NAVAIR establish Remote Data Room

By Deidre MoonAEDC Public Affairs

Engineers at Arnold Air Force Base have researched the use of a Cross-Domain Solution, or CDS, interface to allow plant operations systems outside of the plant control room to remain unclassified during classified test programs.

Scott Howard and Greg Hal-liburton, Department of Defense team members with the Arnold En-gineering Development Complex, Test Information Systems Section at Arnold, along with members of the Controls Design team with the Test Operations and Sustainment con-tractor, National Aerospace Solu-tions, worked to determine whether plant control parameters could be

AEDC Innovation Grant research generates tactical solution for test facility security

See DATA ROOM, page 3See SECURITY, page 3

Chris Carr, an AEDC Instrumentation, Data and Controls engineer, demon-strates how the Cross-Domain Solution, or CDS, works Feb. 12 at Arnold Air Force Base. The CDS interface was researched as a solution to allow plant operations systems outside of the plant control room to remain un-classified during classified test programs. (U.S. Air Force photo by Deidre Moon) (This image has been altered by obscuring items for security pur-poses.)

2 • July 20, 2020

Values

Vision

• Ethics. We are uncompromising in our integrity, honesty, and fairness.

• Safety & Health. We are relentless in keeping people safe from harm, andwe provide a safe and healthy work

environment.• Security. We are disciplined and vigilant in protecting sensitive AEDC information and ensuring system integrity to support

national security and our customers.• Excellence. We thrive on challenge, accomplishment, and mission success.• Quality. We are passionate about doing

our work right the first time.• People. We have a mission-focused,inclusive workforce who have a diverse skill set, are committed to success, demonstrate innovation and have a can

do attitude.• Culture. Our team is proud of our diver-sity, inclusiveness, and collaborative work environment. We are proud of what we do

and how we do it.• Relationships. We build positive, long-term business relationships through trust,

respect, and collaboration.• Innovation. We overcome challenges through creativity, perseverance, technol-ogy, and flexibility. We actively seek to

continually improve.• Sustainability. We plan and act for thelong term benefit of our communities and

our environment.

High Mach Staff:Kathy Jacobsen,

NAS Executive Editor

Jill Pickett NAS Editor

Arnold Air Force

Base

Richard TigheGeneral Manager,

National Aerospace Solutions

High Mach is published by Lakeway Publishers, Inc. a pri-vate firm in no way connected with the U.S. Air Force, Arnold Air Force Base, Arnold Engi-neering Development Complex (AEDC) or National Aerospace Solutions (NAS), under exclu-sive written contract with NAS at Arnold AFB, Tenn., 37389.

Everything advertised in this publication will be made available for purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital sta-tus, physical handicap, political affiliation or any other non-merit factor of the purchaser, user or patron.

The High Mach office is located at 100 Kindel Drive, Suite A236, Arnold AFB, Tenn. 37389-1236. Editorial content is edited and prepared by NAS. Deadline for copy is Wednes-day at close of business one week before publication.

This commercial enterprise newspaper is an allowable NAS contractor publication for personnel at Arnold AFB.

The content of High Mach does not necessarily reflect the views of the Air Force, Arnold AFB, AEDC or NAS. The ap-pearance of advertising in this publication does not constitute endorsement of the products or services advertised by the Department of Defense, the Department of the Air Force, Arnold AFB, AEDC, NAS or Lakeway Publishers, Inc.For general information about High Mach, call (931) 454-5655 or visit www.arnold.af.mil.

Core Values• Integrityfirst

• Service before self• Excellence in all

we do

Use High Mach to mar-ket your products and services. Contact Joe at 931-455-4545 or jmartin@tullahomanews.com

“NAS delivers the best aerospace testing

capabilities today and in the future.”

Col. Jeffrey GeraghtyCommander

Jason AustinChief,

Public Affairs

Smoking Policy1. The following revised Arnold AFB smoking policy is effective immediately and applies to all individuals on

Arnold AFB.2. Traditional Tobacco products (e.g. cigars and cigarettes):

a. Smoking is permitted solely in Designated Tobacco Areas (DTAs) identified by designated signage. If nosignage exists, smoking is not permitted in that area. It is the responsibility of all smokers to keep DTAsclean of cigarette butts.

b. Tobacco use on the Arnold AFB Golf Course is permitted, but discouraged based on the health hazardsof tobacco use and secondhand smoke. No smoking is permitted within 50 feet of golf course buildingsexcept in the approved DTA.

c. Smoking in government-owned/leased vehicles is strictly prohibited. Personnel are allowed to smoke in theirpersonal vehicles at any time; however, at no time will personnel discard cigarette butts outside their vehicle.

d. For government employees, the fact that a person smokes has no bearing on the number of breaks theymay take. Breaks should be taken in accordance with the current supervisory and personnel policies thatafford all employees the same break opportunities consistent with good work practices and accomplish-ment of the mission.

3. Smokeless Tobacco products (e.g. snuff and dip):Smokeless tobacco products are not to be restricted to DTAs. Smokeless tobacco use will be permitted in allworkplace areas (inside and out) subject to reasonable safety and sanitary conditions. Specifically, containersof tobacco waste product, including sealed containers, must not be left unattended or disposed of in trashreceptacles. Users of smokeless tobacco must flush tobacco waste down the toilet.

4. Electronic Cigarettes (also known as “e-cigs”):Pursuant to Air Force Instruction (AFI) 40-102, Tobacco Free Living, e-cigs are considered to be equivalent totobacco products; however, e-cigs are not restricted to DTAs and are allowed to be used outdoors at a minimumdistance of 25 feet from building entry/egress points. (This policy is dated July 27, 2016)

Team AEDC,I believe in free and open communications

with our Team AEDC employees, and that’s why we have the Action Line available. People can use the Action Line to clear up rumors, ask ques-tions, suggest ideas on improvements, enter complaints or get other issues off their chests.

The Action Line has been expanded to in-clude an option for your ideas, comments, or suggestions on the AcqDemo personnel sys-tem. Simply call the normal x6000 commander’s action line. You will then be prompted to select option 1 for the Commander’s Action Line or Op-tion 2 for the AcqDemo line. They can access the Action Line via the AEDC intranet home page and by calling 931-454-6000.

Although the Action Line is always available, the best and fastest way to get things resolved is by using your chain of command or by con-tacting the organization directly involved. I en-courage everyone to go that route first, then if the situation isn’t made right, give us a chance.

Col. Jeffrey GeraghtyAEDC Commander

Action Line

Safety Office enables Team AEDC to meet mission By Harry ClarkChief, AEDC Safety

“Hi, I’m from Safety and I’m here to help!”

OK, what did you think when you read that state-ment? What most people have thought in the past is something along the lines of, “Oh brother…” Today’s AEDC Safety Office wants you to file all that away and take a fresh look at an or-ganization that exists to en-able you and your team to deliver your best products in service to our mission supporting the National Defense Strategy (NDS).

Safety in the Air Force consists of three primary functions: Flight Safety, Weapons Safety and Occu-pational Safety. At AEDC, we have these three core disciplines, plus some su-perstar engineers perform-ing System Safety and Test Safety functions.

“Flight Safety? The only planes we have are those on display by the gates. What do you mean, Flight Safety?”

Actually, AEDC has a Flight Test mission at the 704th Test Group, where the 586th Flight Test Squadron supports the NDS with testing ac-complished in two C-12 turboprop aircraft and sev-eral T-38 jets. To fulfill that safety function, we have a Chief of Flight Safety who is qualified to fly, nearly, every airframe known to man. But there’s more to Flight Safety at AEDC than just the testing done at Hol-loman AFB. You may have heard that the Arnold AFB airfield is being reactivated. While we will not have an active flying mission head-quartered at Arnold, we will be responsible to the

general public and those flying the missions to and from our airfield to ensure we are performing all the necessary Flight Safety functions for which a flying Wing Air Force Base would be responsible.

Weapons Safety at AEDC involves support-ing the skilled craftsmen and engineers at G-Range where they use gunpow-der and ignition devices to launch projectiles/test articles from the “guns” at that facility, and the teams that occasionally use start cartridges for small turbine engines. It also involves support to the teams that execute the solid rocket motor testing that is ac-complished in the J-6 test facility and inspections of all the facilities that store and process these types of systems. There are others, but of particular note is the approval that the 704 TG has to modify the casings of solid rocket motors to tailor them for use as boost-ers for the hypersonic sled track test, which is operated by the 846th Test Squad-ron. Weapons Safety per-sonnel there are intimately involved in assuring that those actions are carried out within the guidelines of the approved process. Lastly, everyone should know that the lands beyond the industrial area at Arnold AFB may have unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over from the time when Camp Forrest was an active range. While these areas have been extensively cleared of UXO, the possibility exists that a recreational user may find an artifact from that time. The AEDC Weapons Safety office is your place to report any such object. Please do not handle any

strange objects that you discover on the Arnold res-ervation, call the Safety Of-fice.

Occupational Safety is what everyone thinks of when they think of “safety.” These are the folks who get no love because they are the ones constantly remind-ing you that, “you could get hurt if you …” The fact is, these “rules” have been developed over years of analyzing data on work-place injuries. When Safety reminds you that the trench you are working in needs to be shored up (or the walls stepped back), when they ask you to hold the hand-rail while using the stairs, when they scrutinize your Confined Space Hazard Analysis and ask pointed questions about your en-try procedures, they are speaking from the collec-tive experience of hundreds of thousands of workplace accidents. It may seem that all Safety wants to do is slow you down, impede your progress and hinder your ability to get that task accomplished, but what they really want to do is to ensure that you CAN ac-complish that task and, at the end of the day, you go home to your family and your friends without having had the really bad experi-ence of being injured while making your contribution to the important work we accomplish every day at AEDC.

System Safety is a disci-pline that is the foundation of our ability to execute our test and evaluation mission using our ground test infra-structure. It is a systematic way to define the perfor-mance envelope within which we can be assured of meeting our customers’

requested test conditions at levels of risk that may be accepted at the appropri-ate level of leadership. It is also the documentation we use to understand how changes, both enhanced capability resulting from Investment and Moderniza-tion projects and degraded capability due to equipment failures or deferred mainte-nance, affect our ability to meet test requirements. The fundamental process in the practice of System Safety is the assessment of risk inherent in operating and maintaining the systems. Baseline Hazard Analyses document the potential haz-ards, including what might cause that hazard to happen and what effect that hazard might have on both people and equipment. This analy-sis then evaluates the risk inherent in operating the facility, some of which may require mitigation to lower the risk to an acceptable level. If that sounds com-plicated, it is. However, you may rest assured that AEDC has a strong history of System Safety and this office works hard every day to ensure that we continue to uphold those standards so that AEDC is available to support the NDS now and for years to come.

Test Safety is the bread and butter of the AEDC en-terprise. A customer comes to us with a plan to acquire some data that will support the development or matura-tion of their system. AEDC engineers determine how a given test capability may be brought to bear to pro-duce the conditions that will yield that data. This in-volves understanding how the operating envelope of a particular facility may be used to develop test condi-

tions that best simulate the actual environment that the system will experi-ence. This includes under-standing how the required test conditions may stress or exceed the capacity of the facility. Documenta-tion of these assessments is captured in Test Hazard Analyses, which require the same level of rigor as those associated with the facility baselines. All of this requires that the teams put-ting together the test plans have a strong and in-depth understanding of their test techniques and the skill to match a customer’s require-ments to those techniques. With that basis in place, the Test Safety documentation allows the appropriate lev-els of leadership to evaluate and accept, or not, the risks associated with accom-plishing the requested tests.

The Safety office doesn’t do all these things, although we must be ex-pert at the fundamentals of each discipline. What the Safety office does is advise the practitioners of these disciplines and ensure that those doing the work have thoroughly and completely evaluated the subject mat-ter. Whether it’s an engi-neer developing a Hazard Analysis for a complicated test in a multi-million dollar facility or an analyst work-ing in an office to support the AEDC mission, every member of the AEDC team is making risk assessments every day. The Safety office just happens to be the pro-fessionals that can help you make these assessments and provide you the tools you need to make your contribution to the National Defense Strategy.

Yes, we are from Safety and we are here to help!

By Marisa Alia-NovobilskiAir Force Materiel Command

WRIGHT-PATTER-SON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – Air Force Materiel Command Airmen are in-vited to submit innova-tive, game-changing ideas to compete in the AFMC Spark Tank competition.

The submitters of the top five, most innovative, game-changing ideas will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges during the AFMC Senior Leader Confer-ence this September. This panel will then select the top two ideas as the major command nominees for the 2021 Air Force-wide com-petition.

“We are searching for ideas with the highest probability of delivering revolutionary impact to AFMC and the Air Force,” said Maj. Gen. Carl Schae-

fer, AFMC Deputy Com-mander. “Our AFMC Air-men are among the most innovative in the Air Force, and this is an opportunity for them to see their game-changing ideas come to life and make impacts on our future.”

The AFMC Spark Tank runs July 1 through Aug. 3 and is open to all uni-formed and civilian AFMC Airmen. Submitted ideas should have the potential to make significant im-pacts on Air Force mis-sions within a six-month to two-year time frame.

Airmen and civilians can submit their ideas on the U.S. Air Force Ideation Platform at https://usaf.ideascalegov.com/ through Aug. 3. All submissions will be evaluated, and the top five ideas will advance to compete during the Se-nior Leader Conference.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our Air-

men to share their innova-tive ideas with the chance to impact the future of our service and our na-tion,” said Gen. Arnold W. Bunch, Jr., AFMC Com-

mander. “Innovation is in our command’s DNA, and it is vital to ensuring our continued ability to be the AFMC We Need to exe-cute the National Defense

Strategy. This will be a tough competition, and I look forward to seeing AFMC innovation shine through in the submis-sions. Best of luck to all.”

Air Force Materiel Command Airmen are invited to submit innovative, game-changing ideas to compete in the AFMC Spark Tank competition. The top two ideas from across the command will compete as the major command nomi-nees for the 2021 Air Force-wide competition. (Air Force graphic by Michele Ruff)

AFMC launches Spark Tank competition

July 20, 2020 • 3

Safety Office enables Team AEDC to meet mission integrating myself wellwith the test team and taking on more of the training and serving as a test analyst during all of their air-on periods for this test program.”

Rubio mentioned his other colleagues at PAX River will be able to complete the basic-level analyst training through the RDR.

“The folks with AEDC have placed all of the trainings onto a net-work drive that is acces-sible through the RDR,” he said. “This means that more PAX personnel can complete the training and potentially become basic-level analysts through the same certi-

fication process.”Having spent time at

Arnold AFB from March to June 2019, Rubio left impressed by the AEDC team members and the facilities.

“One unique aspect to the testing at AEDC is that they perform altitude testing as op-posed to Sea Level Static testing,” he said. “This allows test teams and customers to sub-ject their engines to rep-resentative conditions that they would see in an installed condition, excluding inlet/exhaust variations depending on the aircraft installa-tion, which is a remark-able capability. Here at

PAX we don’t possess that capability since it essentially requires a city block’s worth of space to house the facil-ity components required to simulate thousands of feet of altitude at a variety of Mach num-bers.”

Beaman added that the RDR has offered the ability to view side-by-side the data received from both ground and flight tests of the same engines.

“Here at Arnold, we work on the ground test data and at PAX River they have the flight test data, and now it is pos-sible to compare the two during live tests,” he said.

DATA ROOM from page 1

A Pratt & Whitney F135 engine for the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter undergoes testing in the AEDC Sea Level 3 engine test cell. Using a work sta-tion, known as the Remote Data Room, in the Propulsion Systems Evaluation Facility (PSEF) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, the PSEF test team is able to successfully monitor live engine testing, such as this, for the F135 occurring at Arnold Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo)

SECURITY from page 1normalized with the ad-dition of a CDS.

According to How-ard, an Instrumentation, Data and Controls, or ID&C, engineer, this re-search was done as part of an AEDC Innovation Grant, and while the CDS interface is not cur-rently in place, it is one of several options being reviewed.

“The grant helped determine that the use of CDS would be a fea-sible option,” he said. “It would reduce main-tenance costs resulting from security require-ments and reduce con-current testing conflicts. It would also increase test throughput.”

With the current pro-cedures in place for changing classification levels, starting a new test is not always a quick process.

“Routine inspections and maintenance of pro-tective distribution sys-tems, or PDS, in plant create a significant cost burden to both AEDC and test customers,” Howard said. “With the anticipated advanced programs coming in the future, the current cost will easily increase by hundreds of thousands, if not more.”

Plant control sys-tems that are directly associated with setting test facility conditions

are required to become classified whenever a test program is classi-fied. Therefore, having classified plant systems has an adverse effect on turnaround time when there are multiple active test projects due to the declassification proce-dures required to change between classification levels.

“Implementing this innovative solution would prevent plant con-trol systems from requir-ing a classification high-er than CUI (controlled unclassified informa-tion),” said Chris Carr, AEDC ID&C engineer. “We would still be able to meet the security con-straints without hinder-ing Plant operations.”

Carr also explained what exactly a CDS is and how it works.

“A CDS is a capabil-ity that allows interop-eration of systems of dif-fering classifications,” he said. “This takes the form of a device that acts as a ‘guard’ that se-lectively blocks, allows or redacts data and pre-vents unauthorized net-work access.”

Carr noted that three mechanisms are required to implement such a so-lution: a means of de-termining security level of content, a means of filtering that content per the security relationships

and a means of control-ling network flows with-out breaking the trans-port protocols in use.

“CDS systems already exist as National Secu-rity Agency-approved and certified solutions that have demonstrated proven performance and effectiveness in ac-tual DOD use,” he said. “Such a solution shows great promise in assist-ing with the demands

of security requirements and the requisite harden-ing and inspection of as-sociated AEDC commu-nications infrastructure.”

The CDS capabil-ity is already in use by the warfighter, enabling information sharing across different secu-rity domains in tacti-cal vehicles, aircraft and dismounted soldier systems, according to the General Dynamics

website, maker of the Tactical Cross-Domain Solution, or TACDS. The General Dynamics TACDS was used as part of this AEDC Innovation Grant project.

Sloan Campbell, a new AEDC ID&C en-gineer, was involved in setting up the CDS test-bed and capturing data to be analyzed and reported back to the government customer. Based on the

group’s findings, Roger Vaughn, AEDC ID&C functional manager, said he thinks that the CDS interface could also be beneficial to AEDC test facilities.

“CDS would allow testing to occur in a more efficient manner and would be an effective way of continuing our current procedures with-out derailing what we’re already doing,” he said.

An AEDC Instrumentation, Data and Controls engineer, sets up the Cross-Domain Solution hardware prior to connecting it to a desktop computer Feb. 12 at Arnold Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo by Deidre Moon) (This image has been altered by obscuring items for security purposes.)

By Corrie PolandAir Force Operational Energy

W A S H I N G T O N (AFNS) – On an eight-hour flight to Hawaii, software engineers raced to program the final updates to a mod-eling and simulation tool that would host the Joint Forces Energy Wargame, or JFEW, the first of its kind to focus primarily on energy and fuel logistics.

Known as JFEW-Stan-dard Wargame Integration Facilitation Toolkit, or SWIFT, the tool provided a digital interface to play, present, and analyze the wargame, and allowed players to quickly react to the operational impact of fuel logistics in real-time. The 40-person event, spon-sored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and hosted by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, took place over four days in Au-gust 2019 at Camp Smith in Honolulu.

With a compressed timeline, engineers from the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, or CAPE, office within the OSD successfully built and deployed the application while drastically shorten-ing the execution time-line from two years, to 12 weeks.

Using government off-the-shelf software already created as part of SWIFT, the engineers augmented the tool for JFEW’s unique requirements, allowing players to realistically as-sess the operational impact of fuel logistics including fuels inventories at operat-ing locations, transport and storage issues, consump-tion rates, and infrastructure damage.

The tool enabled the team to create custom sce-narios (maps, operating lo-cations, and units) and rules (movement, logistics) that ensured the game was ef-fective and flexible enough to program during play.

“I like to think of SWIFT as ‘PowerPoint’ for wargaming,” said Harvey Gilbert, CAPE’s IMAG task monitor and solutions architect. “It’s accessible and customiz-able by analysts; it only needs software develop-ers when new features or complex adjudicators need to be added to the plat-form.”

“If it weren’t for SWIFT, we would still be standing around a printed game board and keeping track of player moves with pen and paper,” said Wil-liam Ellerbe, the project’s lead software architect. “It was a very time-consum-ing process and one move would take more than four hours. Now, we can quick-ly execute the game and focus on analysis versus recording moves,” he con-tinued.

Throughout each game, the tool recorded and tracked players’ ac-tions for in-depth analysis,

modification, and reuse and helped inform senior leaders of strategic and tactical requirements in future forces. Additionally, the tool is designed to in-tegrate with other Defense Department wargaming and simulation software, such as the Synthetic The-ater Operations Model, or STORM, which assists in post-game evaluation.

“Analytic wargames benefit from a structured rule-set with clear adju-dication logic during ex-ecution and subsequent analysis,” said Karl Selke, Ph.D., CAPE’s computa-tional social scientist and wargaming expert. “The result of a sound, well-constructed rule-set is an appropriately realistic and abstract model of war.”

According to JFEW team lead and wargaming expert Dominick Wright, Ph.D., JFEW-SWIFT was essential in increasing the visibility of energy risks in multi-domain operations

and contested theaters. The office he represents, Air Force Operational En-ergy, supported the effort with funding and subject matter expertise for de-velopment of the software augmentation.

“The tool helped us identify a few critical en-ergy challenges for the Air Force and joint operations, and provided decision-makers with data-driven insight on how we can improve operational plans for increased readiness,” Wright said. Using the data collected in JFEW-SWIFT during the wargame, the team conducted an in-depth analysis of the chal-lenges and lessons learned, culminating in a classified after-action report and high-level briefings to the INDOPACOM leadership and the Office of the As-sistant Secretary of De-fense for Sustainment.

With a successful demonstration of the software accomplished,

the team plans to further enhance its functionality. Currently, JFEW-SWIFT is available to users as a desktop application, but the team is working on developing a web-based application to be distrib-uted across multiple loca-tions for greater use and visibility. Completion of the update is expected by the end of 2020.

“Wargaming itself, is a tool within a much larger analytic toolkit that should operate in tandem with other analysis meth-ods such as simulation, real-world exercises, and data-driven quantitative techniques,” Selke said. “SWIFT is the key plat-form to bring (wargam-ing) to life for commu-nity use and it is driving operational and tactical wargame design.”

As the team continues to update and improve the software, they plan to use it for future joint-service wargames and exercises.

Rapidly deployed digital tool advances energy in wargaming effort

By Bradley HicksAEDC Public Affairs

If one passes by the Arnold Air Force Base Chapel at the right time on Fridays, they’ll likely hear the picking and singing of old-timey fiddle tunes.

The music emanating from the Chapel comes compliments of 840 Junc-tion, a band comprised of Arnold personnel. On the mandolin is David Wilhite. Providing backing on the guitar is John Laviolette. Picking on the banjo is Brian Brown. Taking up the dobro is Ron Lutz. Keeping the rhythm on the bass is Kraig Smith.

840 Junction primarily performs traditional blue-grass, but the band also dabbles in “newgrass,” SteelDrivers-style music. They also perform Celtic and country tunes and oc-casionally cover classic rock n’ roll songs in a blue-grass style.

The group formed several years ago and has since played at a number of festivals and gatherings throughout the area. The band’s gigs include per-formances at the Spring Hill Music & BBQ Fest, the Music at the Mansion event at the Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, the Celtic Cup in Tullaho-ma, the Hands-On Science Center, Pickin’ in the Park in Spring Hill, the Pump-kinfest in Franklin, the

Military Appreciation Day event at Arnold AFB, and First Friday Jam Night at the Arnold Lakeside Cen-ter.

“Mainly, we just like to get together and jam together, and we have a really good time doing it,” Wilhite said. “And, hey, if there’s some people who actually like listening to us, all the better.”

It was 2013 when Wil-hite and Laviolette first

began getting together to jam.

“I heard that David played the mandolin, which I thought was pretty cool,’” Laviolette said. “He likes to play a lot of fiddle tune stuff, and I’d just back him up on the guitar while he’d play the lead music for the fiddle tune.”

It wouldn’t be long be-fore the duo became a trio.

“I was talking to Ron

Lutz one day after a Com-mander’s Call and learned he played the dobro, which I think is the sweetest-sounding instrument ever. It’s my favorite,” Lavio-lette said.

Lutz joined Wilhite and Laviolette, and the three began meeting at the Test Operations Building for jam sessions. They soon began performing at local events.

“We were getting to-gether to jam, just enjoy the music, and it grew from there,” Lutz said.

The three would soon move their jams from the Test Operations Build-ing to the Chapel, gather-ing weekly to play. Others around base caught wind of the jam sessions and would often drop by to pick with Wilhite, Lavio-lette and Lutz.

“We’ve had differ-ent people come in just to kind of jam, not really as a band, just to play bluegrass music because that’s what we love,” Laviolette said.

Brown was among those who took notice of the jam sessions. He was taking courses in the train-ing center previously lo-cated down the hall from the Chapel on the first floor of the Arnold Admin-

istration and Engineering Building. He was walk-ing by the Chapel one day when something caught his ear.

“I was either walking to or from my class and I was like, ‘Is somebody playing music in there?’” Brown said. “So I just opened the door up and saw them.”

Before long, Brown was bringing in his banjo to play along with those in the Chapel.

Smith had begun play-ing with Wilhite, Lavio-lette and Lutz prior to Brown joining the group. He first backed up the three original members of the band while they per-formed at a musical gath-ering organized by a previ-ous Arnold employee.

“They said, ‘You want to play the next gig?’ I said, ‘OK,’” Smith said. “I’ve been at every one since.”

Laviolette said the additions of Smith and Brown brought a new dy-namic to the group.

“When we were just playing as three instru-ments, it was hollow,” he said. “When you start adding that bass in there, it sounds better. Then add the banjo, and it just brings it all together.”

With Brown and Smith onboard, 840 Junction was formed. The band took its name due to the proximity of its members’ residences to Interstate 840, a por-tion of which runs through Murfreesboro.

The five bandmates gather nearly every Friday in the Arnold AFB Chapel to jam. They will also as-semble there as needed to work out any kinks before an upcoming gig.

“We’re not real seri-ous,” Laviolette said. “Sometimes we’ll play a song and we’re like, ‘That’s a crash and burn kind of thing,’ and other times we’re like, ‘Wow, that was really good.’”

The members of 840 Junction agree their week-ly jams provide plenty of humor and comradery and, of course, the opportunity to create music with bud-dies.

“We all like the mu-sic and we’re all friends,” Smith said.

This sentiment appears to fall right in line with the band’s expression – “Sometimes bluegrass is more fun to play than it is to listen to.”

“It’s definitely more fun than a human should have,” Laviolette said.

4 • July 20, 2020

On Dec. 23, 2019, the members of 840 Junction, a band comprised of Arnold Air Force Base personnel, gather in the Arnold AFB Chapel for one of their weekly jam sessions. Pictured from left are Ron Lutz, David Wilhite, Kraig Smith, Brian Brown and John Laviolette. (U.S. Air Force photo by Bradley Hicks) (This image was altered by obscuring badges for security purposes.)

Bluegrass and buds: Arnold AFB team members gather for weekly jams

July 20, 2020 • 5

By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

W A S H I N G T O N (AFNS) – The Depart-ment of the Air Force, in support of both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, stood up a special task force June 9, to ad-dress the issue of racial, ethnic and other demo-graphic disparities and their impact on the forces.

Also, on June 2, Sec-retary of the Air Force Barbara M. Barrett and service chiefs, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein and USSF Chief of Space Opera-tions Gen. Jay Raymond,directed the Inspector General to independentlyreview the service’s re-cord on military disci-pline as well as leader de-velopment opportunities for Black/African Ameri-can Airmen and Space Professionals.

The task force is charged with identify-ing and changing poli-cies, procedures, barriers and other practices that may be unfairly impact-ing underrepresented Air and Space Professionals. It is postured to identify near-term problems and solutions that will have immediate benefits for members, with a focus on policies particularly impacting minority mem-bers. It has been tasked to be mindful of not impact-ing or assuming results from the IG’s review, and is therefore focused on immediate actions versus

identification and action toward longer-term sys-temic and cultural issues the IG might identify.

“Clearly we have to acknowledge our Air and Space Forces are not im-mune from racism and the challenges of inequity. As a force that depends on unity, inclusion, and a common strength of pur-pose, we are committed to being better every day until all within our ranks feel a true sense of be-longing that allows them to maximize their talents,“ said Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, deputy chief of staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services. “This is why we stood up the task force, to move out quickly and de-liver immediate improve-ments for our services.”

Capitalizing on con-tinuous feedback from the force and the momen-tum from current national events, the task force is an agile cross-functional team of military and ci-vilian Air and Space Pro-fessionals that represent communities within the services that bring sub-ject matter expertise to the changes being considered. Members are comprised of Airmen of different ranks and perspectives, representing both minor-ity and majority groups, whose sole focus is mak-ing changes that create an equitable environment for all Department of the Air Force personnel.

The task force is task-organized across five lines of effort:

• Culture and Policy

• Education, Training andTesting

• Recruiting andAccessions

• Workforce Diversity

• Aircrew Diversity

“We have a unique andhistorical opportunity to truly make a difference in the lives of our Airmen and Space Professionals,” said Brig. Gen. Troy Dunn, Air Force director of Military Force Policy and recently appointed director of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. “Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working quietly behind the scenes to tackle these issues. Though we have a long road ahead, I’m re-ally proud of the work this team has done. We want our people to know that we’re steadfast in our com-mitment to building an Air Force culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging.”

To date, the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force facilitated the following changes:

Minority Serving Institutions ROTC

scholarships

In conjunction with the Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citi-zen Development, the task force is working to increase and offer scholarships for nearly 300 current and fu-ture ROTC cadets attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities or Hispan-

ic-Serving Institutions. The qualified recipients will re-ceive a full-ride scholarship with full tuition and fees paid starting in the 2020-21 school year. The move is in-tended to increase minority representation in the officer ranks, something the Air Force has struggled with. Currently, racial and ethnic minorities make up 40 per-cent of the U.S. population but only 24 percent of the officer corps.

Revised dress and appearance regulation

In an effort to be more inclusive of all Airmen and Space Professionals, the task force worked to revise Air Force Instruction 36-2903, “Dress and Personal Appearance of Air Force Personnel.” The changes include removal of subjec-tive language, including the word “faddish” and refer-ences to complexion; both subjective terms that were in some cases unfairly tar-geting specific demographic groups. The update also included authorization for men to wear their hair part-ed (cut, clipped or shaved), and authorization for name tapes to include diacritical accents, which aid in proper pronunciation and provide a more accurate representa-tion of a legal name.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Unconscious Bias

Training

The task force, in con-junction with headquar-ters staff, has finished

post-production of a new video on uncon-scious bias to highlight bias mitigation strategies that will maximize tal-ent and benefit the entire force. The task force is also working with Cor-nell University to enroll several members of the Department of the Air Force Barrier Analysis Working Group in an on-line Diversity and Inclu-sion certificate program. These leaders will be equipped with fundamen-tal diversity and inclusion concepts and required to share this informa-tion with their respective teams as well as Airmen and Space Professionals at the major command and installation levels. The task force is assem-bling options for depart-ment leaders to determine their intent for how train-ing will be rolled out to the forces over the com-ing months and years, and at what touchpoints in the talent management lifecycle of Airmen and Space Professionals that training will be most ef-fective.

Improved shaving waiver procedures

In conjunction with the Air Force Surgeon General, the task force used feedback from the field to improve the shaving waiver process. Air and Space Profes-sionals who have been diagnosed with Pseudo-folliculitis Barbae, or

PFB, are now authorized five-year shaving waiv-ers. The previous policy required PFB waivers to be updated annually or when a member moved to a new duty location. In some cases, members who had been previously diagnosed with PFB were required to get a new waiver when they moved or deployed, forcing them to shave and aggravate their skin condition or have limited duties while they awaited a new medi-cal appointment. This change is intended to eliminate the burdensome waiver process that was negatively impacting mi-nority members, as PFB more frequently occurs in Black/African American males, and it also allows more time for the skin to heal properly. The waiver will be valid for five years from the date of issuance, or upon an updated di-agnosis, and will remain valid regardless of the member’s deployment or new permanent change of station location.

“Our work is cer-tainly cut out for us and we have a list of items to tackle, but we are listen-ing and we hear you,” Dunn said. “Racial dis-parity is a national issue that impacts all facets of American life and we will not rest until our Airmen and Space Pro-fessionals feel like they truly belong and are thriving in an organiza-tion that values diversity and equality.”

Department of the Air Force stands up Diversity and Inclusion Task Force

By James C. Cunningham412th Test Wing

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Current Test and Evalua-tion at Edwards Air Force Base is technically lim-ited in easily discovering, reproducing, describing, evaluating, and training emerging 3D-related is-sues. However, there are multiple 3D-capable sys-tems currently fielded or potentially coming to the USAF; e.g. KC-46 remote vision system (RVS), HC-130J Large Aircraft Infrared Coun-termeasures upgrade, F-35 3D-capable head-mounted display, etc.

In order to prepare and improve Edwards AFB testing capabilities for this emerging tech-nology, a proposal is cur-rently in work through AFWERX’s Small Busi-ness Innovation Research (SBIR) office to bring a 3D Video-review Ground Station (3D-VGS) to Ed-wards AFB.

The 3D-VGS is planned to allow 412th engineers (e.g. human factors, optics, etc.) and aircrew (e.g. KC-46 aeri-al refueling operators) to do the following:

• 3D-playback and review of unclassified3D-video; e.g. videofrom the KC-46 RVS

• Playback as similar to the source environment as possible; i.e. viewing distances, etc.

• Integration of otherdisplay types; i.e.different 2D or active/passive 3D flat-screencommercial off-the-shelf displays, augmented reality and virtual-reality, etc.

• Integration of multiple3D-video formats

• Event tagging invideo; e.g. ”Here’swhere this happened”

• Exportable video clips

• Easy video access: i.e.through a networkedcomputer, portablehard-drive or CD/DVD, or local storage

• Future systemupgrade to allow otherplayback options

“It would be an excel-lent instructional tool and also serve as a means to replicate issues noted in-flight for test purposes and maintenance trou-bleshooting,” said Staff Sergeant Andrew Miller, test boom operator, 418th Flight Test Squadron. “I see it being used fairly often for test and training missions, possibly every flight.”

When the 3D-VGS gets to Edwards, dis-cussion is ongoing with 412th electro-optical sys-tems engineers to include the 3D-VGS into the electro-optical/infrared lab complex planning. From initial discussion with the engineers, the 3D-VGS would fill their need to have a similar ground station in their

human perception and performance lab. The 3D-VGS’ display modularity (i.e. plug-and-play differ-ent displays) would sup-port 2D and 3D display and video review across multiple display types.

The idea for the 3D-VGS came from the lead human systems integra-tion (HSI) RVS engineer on the KC-46. Through-out RVS testing, it was apparent test operators and engineers were ex-tremely limited in how they could discover, re-produce, describe, evalu-ate, share, and train 3D-related issues, such as changes to depth percep-tion, issues with visual acuity, and differences in binocular imagery.

As a result, it took over 3 years to understand and

describe the few issues de-scribed in the current RVS Category 1 Deficiency Report (CAT 1 DR). Even after the HSI engineer was able to see a few of the 3D-related issues in-flight during testing, all of the 3D-related issues relied on both the AROs and engi-neer’s abilities to describe and understand very diffi-cult things to describe and understand.

For example, how does a person experience depth perception? Are they sen-sitive to changes in depth perception? If a change is noticed, how detailed would someone be able to describe what they ex-perienced? That was one of the key concerns try-ing to discern the impact of 3D-related issues like depth perception.

Attempting to repro-duce the 3D-related issues was also difficult and not guaranteed. To reproduce the issue required sched-uling another flight to in-vestigate a specific flight condition that may not have been described suffi-ciently in the initial flight notes.

Eventually, many of the descriptions finally documented only came af-ter the test crew (engineers and AROs) increased the priority of collecting all RVS in-flight details and after the understanding and vocabulary on RVS-related things increased; e.g., terms for humanperception, optics andhow cameras work, ste-reoscopic displays, etc.

If a 3D-VGS capabil-ity had been available

during RVS testing, the test team would have been able to review all test video and pinpoint the majority of the issues. Additionally, other issues may have been found that are not described in the CAT 1 DR. Edwards AFB needs a 3D-VGS to help the engineering community more easily, effectively and efficiently discover, reproduce, de-scribe, evaluate, and train on emerging 3D-related issues.

The 3D-VGS proposal is currently in SBIR Phase 1. The HSI RVS engineeris currently working withthe chosen contractor toprepare the project for aPhase 2 decision in June/July. A prototype wouldmost likely be developedover the next two years.

Edwards AFB prepares for 3D-Video Review Ground Station

Master Sgt. Luis Rodriguez-Asad uses the KC-46A Remote Vision System demonstration Nov. 14, 2013, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Colby L. Hardin)

6 • July 20, 2020

By AEDC Safety

When COVID-19 first was intro-duced who could have guessed that it would so dramatically affect every-one’s lives the way it has: questions at the gate to get into work; then most of us working from home or being fur-loughed; empty store shelves, stores and restaurants being closed; protec-tive masks being suggested or required everywhere you go; virtual town hall meetings hosted by Commander Col. Jeffrey Geraghty to keep us informed.

Finally we got the word…back to work. Get ready for the “New Normal” – masks in common areas, extra handsanitizers, and more depending whereyou work. With that in mind, in caseyou have missed some of the details,let’s get caught up.

According to the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention (CDC) the Coronavirus (COVID-19) “is a new worldwide illness caused by a virus that can spread from person to person. COVID-19 symptoms can range from mild (or no symptoms) to severe illness.”

Symptoms

Symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure  to the virus.  People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:• Fever or chills

• Cough

• Shortness of breath or difficultybreathing

• Fatigue

• Muscle or body aches

• Headache

• New loss of taste or smell

• Sore throat

• Congestion or runny nose

• Nausea or vomiting

• Diarrhea

*This list does not include all pos-sible symptoms. CDC will continue to update this list as we learn more about COVID-19.

If you are sick

If you are sick, stay home. Most peo-ple with COVID-19 have mild illness and can recover at home without medical care. Do not leave your home except to get medical care. Separate yourself from other people and pets in your home. If possible, you should use a separate bathroom. If you must be around others outside of the home, wear a cloth face covering and try to stay at least 6 feet away from others.

Seek Emergency Medical Atten-tion when you see the  emergency warning signs:

• Trouble breathing

• Persistent pain or pressure in thechest

• New confusion

• Inability to wake or stay awake

• Bluish lips or face

If you do go to a doctor, call aheadto notify them that you are seeking care for someone who has or may have CO-VID-19.

Tips to avoid catching Covid-19

• Wash your hands – often - with soapand water for at least 20 seconds.This is especially important afterblowing your nose, coughing, orsneezing; going to the bathroom; andbefore eating or preparing food. OR

• Use hand sanitizer if soap and waterare not available. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60percent alcohol, covering all surfacesof your hands and rubbing themtogether until they feel dry.

• Take care of yourself.  Get rest andstay hydrated.

• Avoid public transportation, ride-sharing or taxis

• You should wear a  cloth face covering over your nose and mouth if

you must be around other people or animals, including pets (even at home). If you can’t put on a cloth face covering (because of trouble breathing, for example), cover your coughs and sneezes in some other way. Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2 years, anyone who has trouble breathing, or anyone who is not able to remove the covering without help.

• Try to stay at least 6 feet away fromother people. This will help protectthe people around you.

• Every day, clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces including phones,remote controls, counters,tabletops, doorknobs, bathroomfixtures, toilets, keyboards, tablets,and bedside tables.

2020 has been a unique year and weare just half way through it. Keep doing your best and stay healthy.

If you observe an unsafe action or condition that needs immediate atten-tion (i.e., one that creates immediate danger to life or health), call the AEDC Safety Hotline, 454-7233 (S-A-F-E). This number rings in the AEDC Safety Office on weekdays during business hours. The AEDC Operations Center answers calls at night, on weekends, and after the fourth ring during regu-lar duty hours.

Covid-19 and you

By AFWERX Public Affairs

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) – Spark Tank, a collaboration between AF-WERX and Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force, Management, is now ac-cepting submissions for the 2021 campaign from July 1 to October 16.

The annual campaign is designed to spur and empower innovative ideas from Airmen to further strengthen Air Force cul-ture and capabilities.

“Empowerment breeds success,” said Lauren Knausenberger, Spark Tank director. “We know that if our Air Force lead-ers demonstrate their sup-port, our Airmen’s desire to share their ideas and innovations would spread like wildfire across the Air Force.”

To kick off the cam-

paign, Total Force Airmen are encouraged to submit their ideas on the Airmen Powered by Innovation crowdsourcing platform where teams from their major command will re-view them and select two semi-finalists, each to ad-vance to a board run by Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen W. Wilson. Two wildcard submissions will also be selected to progress to the board.

The selection process will look at the needs for specific capabilities as well as concerns of safety, policy, Air Force-wide implementation, technical feasibility and scalability.

Non-finalist submis-sions will be transferred to the API open-call cam-paign and partnered with collaboration coaches to further develop their proj-ects.

Following the board,

six finalists will be select-ed to visit AFWERX Ve-gas for pitch coaching and innovation training before presenting on-stage at the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in 2021.

“While we only select six finalists to progress to the Spark Tank final stage, we aim for all Airmen who participate in the campaign to gain something from the experience,” said Maj. Alisha Temples, Spark Tank deputy. “Whether it’s discovering a pathway to share their ideas, learn-ing creative ways to solve problems at their unit, or hearing the secretary of the Air Force encourage them not to accept the sta-tus quo--this is an event meant for all Airmen.”

Building on last year’s event, which drew more than 200 idea submissions and named two winners,

Spark Tank is also looking to expand and improve its program to include more educational opportunities and pathways for leaders to empower Airmen at all levels of the organization.

As part of this effort, the wing and major com-mand with the most num-ber of ideas submitted by the end of the campaign will be recognized for mo-bilizing their organization to contribute to the Air Force’s innovation mis-sion.

By empowering Air-men to submit as many ideas as possible, the Air Force can begin to under-stand trends, identify pain points and challenge areas, and start connecting teams that may have similar in-terests and could benefit from combining efforts.

“Shifting a decades-in-the-making bureaucratic culture toward an agile

and responsive problem-solving, improvement and innovation-focused culture will not happen overnight,” said William “Brou” Gautier, Air Force Continuous Process Im-provement & Innovation Division chief. “While we’ve made great strides over the last few years with Spark Tank and Air-men Powered by Innova-tion efforts, we still have a long way to go. It will take active participation from our top leadership and every Airmen and Space professional to get us there.”

As part of this year’s campaign, AFWERX and SAF/MG will also be shar-ing educational material on how organizations can move beyond potential roadblocks and innovate, pulled from resources like the Innovation Handbook and the Four Phases of In-

novation, as well as high-lighting the experiences of previous Spark Tank par-ticipants.

To get started, head over to the API crowd-sourcing platform to submit and share ideas, provide thoughts and feedback on submis-sions, and vote on the most promising solutions: https://usaf.ideascalegov.com/a/ideas/recent/cam-paigns/156.

Follow AFWERX on social media for the lat-est campaign information: LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/afwerx-usaf/; Instagram - www.instagram.coc/afwerx/; Twitter - twitter.com/AF-WERX; Facebook - www.facebook . com/AFW-ERX/; Medium - medium.com/@afwerx; YouTube - www.youtube.com/chan-nel/UC1B5dVYEgCDI-jXVlEDiN0QQ?.

Spark Tank 2021 encourages leadership to support Airmen ideas

Spark Tank, a collaboration between AFWERX and Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force, Management, is now accepting submissions for the 2021 cam-paign from July 1 to October 16, 2020. The annual campaign is designed to spur and empower innovative ideas from Airmen to further strengthen Air Force culture and capabilities. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)

July 20, 2020 • 7

8 • July 20, 2020

By James C. Cunningham412th Test Wing

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Current Test and Evalua-tion at Edwards Air Force

Base is technically lim-ited in easily discovering, reproducing, describing, evaluating, and training emerging 3D-related is-sues. However, there are multiple 3D-capable sys-tems currently fielded

or potentially coming to the USAF; e.g. KC-46 remote vision system (RVS), HC-130J Large Aircraft Infrared Coun-termeasures upgrade, F-35 3D-capable head-mounted display, etc.

In order to prepare and improve Edwards AFB testing capabilities for this emerging tech-nology, a proposal is cur-rently in work through AFWERX’s Small Busi-ness Innovation Research (SBIR) office to bring a 3D Video-review Ground Station (3D-VGS) to Ed-wards AFB.

The 3D-VGS is planned to allow 412th engineers (e.g. human factors, optics, etc.) and aircrew (e.g. KC-46 aer-ial refueling operators) to do the following:

• 3D-playback andreview of unclassified3D-video; e.g. videofrom the KC-46 RVS

• Playback as similar to the source environment as possible; i.e. viewing distances, etc.

• Integration of other display types; i.e. different 2D or active/passive 3D flat-screencommercial off-the-shelf displays, augmented reality and virtual-reality, etc.

• Integration of multiple3D-video formats

• Event tagging in video; e.g. ”Here’s where this happened”

• Exportable video clips

• Easy video access: i.e.through a networkedcomputer, portable hard-drive or CD/DVD, or local storage

• Future system upgrade to allow otherplayback options

“It would be an excel-lent instructional tool and also serve as a means to replicate issues noted in-flight for test purposes and maintenance trou-bleshooting,” said Staff Sergeant Andrew Miller,

test boom operator, 418th Flight Test Squadron. “I see it being used fairly often for test and training missions, possibly every flight.”

When the 3D-VGS gets to Edwards, dis-cussion is ongoing with 412th electro-optical sys-tems engineers to include the 3D-VGS into the electro-optical/infrared lab complex planning. From initial discussion with the engineers, the 3D-VGS would fill their need to have a similar ground station in their human perception and performance lab. The 3D-VGS’ display modularity (i.e. plug-and-play differ-ent displays) would sup-port 2D and 3D display and video review across multiple display types.

The idea for the 3D-VGS came from the lead human systems integra-tion (HSI) RVS engineer on the KC-46. Through-out RVS testing, it was apparent test operators and engineers were ex-tremely limited in how they could discover, re-produce, describe, evalu-ate, share, and train 3D-related issues, such as changes to depth percep-tion, issues with visual acuity, and differences in binocular imagery.

As a result, it took over 3 years to understand and describe the few issues described in the current RVS Category 1 Defi-ciency Report (CAT 1 DR). Even after the HSI engineer was able to see a few of the 3D-related is-sues in-flight during test-ing, all of the 3D-related issues relied on both the AROs and engineer’s abilities to describe and understand very difficult things to describe and un-derstand.

For example, how does a person experience depth perception? Are they sensitive to changes

in depth perception? If a change is noticed, how detailed would someone be able to describe what they experienced? That was one of the key con-cerns trying to discern the impact of 3D-related issues like depth percep-tion.

Attempting to repro-duce the 3D-related is-sues was also difficult and not guaranteed. To repro-duce the issue required scheduling another flight to investigate a specific flight condition that may not have been described sufficiently in the initial flight notes.

Eventually, many of the descriptions finally documented only came after the test crew (en-gineers and AROs) in-creased the priority of collecting all RVS in-flight details and after the understanding and vo-cabulary on RVS-related things increased; e.g., terms for human percep-tion, optics and how cam-eras work, stereoscopic displays, etc.

If a 3D-VGS capabil-ity had been available during RVS testing, the test team would have been able to review all test video and pinpoint the majority of the issues. Additionally, other issues may have been found that are not described in the CAT 1 DR. Edwards AFB needs a 3D-VGS to help the engineering community more easily, effectively and efficiently discover, reproduce, de-scribe, evaluate, and train on emerging 3D-related issues.

The 3D-VGS proposal is currently in SBIR Phase 1. The HSI RVS engineeris currently working withthe chosen contractor toprepare the project for aPhase 2 decision in June/July. A prototype wouldmost likely be developedover the next two years.

By Samuel King Jr.96th Test Wing Public Affairs

EGLIN AIRFORCE BASE, Fla. – The Negatively Pres-surized Conex Liteearned its certificationfor operational use June25, only a day after itsbig brother completedits first-ever deploy-ment mission for theAir Force.

The 417th Flight Test Squadron here played a large part in achieving this critical milestone.

“To go from vision to the warfighters’ hands in less than 90 days is absolutely phenom-enal,” said Col. Devin Traynor, 96th Opera-tions Group command-er. “To do that during a global pandemic is sim-ply unprecedented.”

The NPC and NPC Lite are transport/isola-tion modules that can be loaded onto aircraft to safely-move individuals with the COVID-19 vi-rus and other highly in-fectious diseases. The NPC loads onto a C-5 or C-17 and can trans-port approximately 28 passengers. The NPC Lite fits into a C-130 and carries around 15 passengers.

At the end of April, the C-130 test squad-ron’s team took on the project of NPC Lite air-worthiness testing for the entire Air Force C-130 fleet. Prior toany testing on the NPCLite, the team spent April and May plan-ning, coordinating anddesigning the tests thatwould meet the require-ments. A standard testprogram typically takesat least three months to

a year of planning.The team created test

designs and procedures for the three Hercu-les variants needed to represent the majority of the Air Force C-130 fleet.

“We had to test all three aircraft in the shortest time possible, without sacrificing data integrity, to meet the deployment timeline,” said 1st Lt. Allison Read, 417th FLTS NPC

Lite test team lead.Once the plan was in

place, next came the air-craft. The 417th FLTS does not own any air-craft, so they relied on other C-130 squadrons. The 88th Test and Eval-uation Squadron pro-vided an HC-130J. Air National Guard units, the 166th Airlift Wing and 133rd Airlift Wing, provided a C-130H2 and C-130H3 respectively.

A host of other units,

groups and offices took part in the test ef-fort from maintenance, ground support, moving the NPC Lite and its us-age during the testing.

The team needed 18 ground tests and one flight test at Joint Base Charleston to reach their requirements. A large portion of those tests involved testing the electronics on the air-craft and the NPC Lite. Those systems needed to

work together and also not interfere or overload each other or the aircraft systems to reach the air-worthiness goal. Other testing involved the loading process, egress and communication in-side and out of the NPC Lite.

The team endured COVID-19 protocols and the usual weather and equipment failure obstacles during the testing, but also encoun-tered daily and some-times hourly changes to their requirements.

“This (NPC Lite) program is definitely not normal. The pace of events was beyond any-one’s expectations,” said Karl Biermacher, C-130 avionics and electrical engineering chief at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. “I know first-hand how challenging it can be to prepare, execute and re-port on a test under nor-mal circumstances, let alone the circumstances of this program. This team did all those things flawlessly, adjusting many times to chang-ing circumstances. Their support was exceptional and I do not use that term lightly. They are true professionals.”

Eglin test squadron makes transport module ‘air worthy’

The Negatively Pressurized Conex Lite being loaded on an HC-130J for testing at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina. It’s the first part of a series of testing to certify the system for operations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Maund)

Edwards AFB prepares for 3D-Video Review Ground Station

July 20, 2020 • 9

By Tech. Sgt. RobertBarnettSecretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

W A S H I N G T O N (AFNS) – Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Gold-fein presented an optimistic and confident portrait of the service’s future July 1, telling an influential audience at the Brookings Institution the ser-vice is fulfilling all missions with excellence and ingenuity despite an array of challenges.

During the hour-long virtual appearance, the Air Force’s highest-ranking offi-cer explained that the service has made progress toward high-priority goals that in-clude all-domain, joint opera-tions and adapting to meeting threats from near-peer pow-ers.

He also discussed im-provements in technological innovation and acknowl-edged the need to address new challenges. The oppor-tunities included the contin-ued development of the U.S. Space Force, improving the diversity of the Air Force, while also ensuring social and criminal justice across the service.

Goldfein explained that early in his tenure, he noticed four key areas “we have to invest in if we’re going to build the force we need to be able to compete, deter, and if deterrence fails, win,” he said.

The first key area was space. The Air Force had to make space superiority num-ber one, he explained. “It was never a guarantee that if you moved first in space that you were going to win. But in every (war) game we played, if you were the sec-ond mover, you were guar-anteed to lose,” he said.

“It became clear to me that the time to build a ser-vice was now… that a chief of a service focused on space is going to move faster than a chief of a service that’s focused on the entire multi-domain Air Force,” Gold-fein said. “Once I became a believer, I got behind it full-force.”

The plan is to make the new service successful with-in the Department of the Air Force, which means growing it while keeping it connected, he said.

The second key area was

Joint All-Domain Command and Control, an approach that aligns each branch of the U.S. military to maxi-mize the projection of power across air, land, sea, space and cyber operations.

This concept, known in the shorthand JADC2, rep-resents a fundamental shift in how the joint force and industry will do business, he said. The collection of net-worked systems and imme-diately-available information is critical to enabling joint service operations across all domains.

It is about connecting the force in ways never seen before, Goldfein said. He illustrated the concept by explaining that new air-craft must be able to “talk” to older aircraft. They also must be able to instantly and seamlessly communicate with an X-37 space plane in orbit, a Marine task force or an Army brigade combat team on the ground and to a Navy submarine below sea. Every system needs to be op-timized to operate simultane-ously in all-domain opera-tions, in land, sea, undersea, space and cyberspace.

The third element of in-vestment was a hybrid force – describing the desire forstand-off and stand-in sys-tems. In order to win futurebattles, this means portionsof the joint team should beable to “penetrate, persist,proliferate, protect and pun-ish the adversary,” while oth-er portions of the force mayhave to operate from outsidethe threat area.

The final area focused on the false assumption that fu-ture logistics are safe.

“Let’s be honest, I’ve been able to flow whatever forces I needed into theater in whatever time frame or mode I wanted, and I was never under attack,” Gold-fein said. “That’s a false as-sumption for a future con-flict.”

Each of these four areas contribute to building a force that could change the out-come of future fights.

“The only way to pay for that [force] is to get rid of those things that don’t play well or heavily in the 2030 fight. That’s the path the ser-vice has been on,” he said. “Trying to get us to think about digital engineering, architecture and common

data as the currency of future warfare.”

Building this force means focusing on recruitment and development, Goldfein ex-plained.

“We’re doing a lot of work toward becoming a more diverse force, but I think we have the oppor-tunity in front of us right now to put our foot on the gas and really move for-ward,” he said. “We’re the big tent service because we have the most diverse mission set. We do leaflets to nukes. We ought to be the very best in the world at diversity. And we’re not. But we can be.”

The measures being put in place to get where the force needs to be are aggressive and long-term, he explained. They in-volve changing the demo-graphic, building a culture of inclusiveness at the squadron level, and giving commanders the tools they need.

“History’s not on our side here,” he said, noting the human tendency to-ward distraction. “Shame on us, if we let that happen. I’ve talked to command-ers across the Air Force, and asked them to commit right now to making his-tory wrong on this one.”

The CSAF explained that he wants the Air Force to be the standard that other services strive to fol-low. He wants diversity of Airmen across the demo-graphics, of ideas and in-novation to think of things others haven’t thought of, and solve problems for questions not asked yet, in order to network every asset in the armed services and the fighting force he envisions for 2030.

Maturing this doc-trine, and the technology surrounding it, is among Goldfein’s most signifi-cant accomplishments as his four-year term as chief of staff comes to an end next month. He said his job as the outgoing chief is to run a transition that’s the gold standard for continuity, stability and keeping the missions of the Air Force.

Finally, he praised the selection of Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. to be the22nd Chief of Staff.

Goldfein touted Brown’s command experience in Europe, Central Command, and now the Pacific.

“He knows every inter-national air chief from Afri-ca to Europe, with a personal relationship…every interna-tional air chief in the Middle

East, and every international air chief in the Pacific and (U.S. Indo-Pacific Com-mand),” he explained. “This is a guy whose resume is just spectacular.”

“An unbelievable offi-cer…if you look at his back-ground, you won’t find one

(officer), quite frankly, that’s better,” Goldfein said. “The wonderful thing is he and Sharene are an incredible team. It’s going to be fun to hand the flag to a good friend and a great officer, who will take this Air Force to newer heights.”

By Deidre MoonAEDC Public Affairs

Editor’s note: The Team AEDC Frontlines series is a recurring feature that

puts the spotlight on some of the members of Team AEDC on the “frontlines” supporting our mission, people and families during the COVID-19 crisis.

The following are the first three from the series. Please visit www.arnold.af.mil regularly to see oth-er Team AEDC members featured

Team AEDC Frontlines

(U.S. Air Force graphic)

Goldfein describes the future of the Air Force

Kevin Holton is the Senior Security Services Contractor for the Arnold Engineering Develop-ment Complex at Arnold Air Force Base.

Holton arrived at Ar-nold AFB in January 2017, previously serving the local community as a law enforcement officer for 15 years.

“My responsibility here at Arnold is to lead the 60 security profes-sionals charged with keeping the bad guys out and the good information in,” he said. “It is the AID (Akima Intra-Data) secu-rity team’s duty to secure resources and protect the base populace in ac-cordance with Air Force guidelines.”

With security services serving an essential func-tion for base operations, Holton has continued to be on site throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He

added that the respon-sibilities of him and his team have also increased during this time.

“The security team has worn many hats and stepped up its duties for the past several weeks with AEDC leadership implementing a number of base entry restriction updates daily to limit the spread of COVID-19,” he said. “In addition to these changes, the secu-rity team has increased its cleanliness practices and sanitation methods to en-sure posts and patrol ve-hicles are kept clean and sanitized for the safety of security personnel, mis-sion essential employees frequenting the base and the families we all return home to.”

Holton did also note, however, that at the end of the day, the current posture for AEDC has not been all that significantly

different from his team’s pre-COVID 19 routine.

“AID security offi-cers have continued to do what we signed on to do, and that’s keep the base population safe and the nation’s defense resourc-es secure.

“What the current pos-ture has brought to light is a bigger understanding of how we are all connected with our mission, how we interact with each other day-to-day can and will impact people around us, and the importance of a healthy home and work environment given how rapidly this virus spreads. With that said, a positive attitude can spread just as fast as CO-VID-19, and I would like to see that spread through-out the Complex in these challenging times.”

Kevin, thank you for all you do for Team AEDC!

By Daniel Carlson771st Test Squadron

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Cali-fornia – The 771st Test Squadron has discovered new opportunities for in-novation while adjusting to the new normal of tele-work operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 771st has recently em-ployed a machine learning tool nicknamed “Sasha” and is showing promise in data analysis, according to engineers at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

The 771st’s Electronic Warfare testers develop tried and true methods of performing data analysis for the test enterprise. This data analysis feeds test reports for program offices which in turn guide the fielding of capabilities for the warfight-er and highlight deficiencies that must be addressed in order to ensure the safety of service members.

As EW systems get more sophisticated, the amount of data collected during each mission has rapidly increased. Analyz-ing and reporting on these larger volumes of data have traditionally been a manual and time consum-ing process, but these con-ventional analysis methods could eventually struggle

to deliver data at the speed of relevance. Doing quality and timely data analysis on ever-larger volumes of data require new approaches such as big data analytics and machine learning.

One of the first steps in EW data analysis is recon-ciling data collected by an aircraft sensor with truth data from a test range. This

reconciliation process can be manually intensive and often takes hours or days to complete for a single mis-sion. This is where Sasha comes in.

By training a model with previously reconciled data, machine learning can be used to automatically reconcile a new data set in minutes rather than hours.

The capability has been demonstrated on multiple data sets from multiple platforms and when fully matured has the potential to save hundreds of man-hours across the squadron.

The arrival of the CO-VID-19 pandemic and the 771st Test Squadron’s abrupt transition to 100 percent telework has been challenging but has also offered new opportunities for collaboration and in-novation across the squad-ron. The squadron quickly adopted new collaboration tools and setup online de-velopment environments at home so that technical work on projects such as Sasha could continue.

“Members of the 771st have done an amazing job of adapting and thriving in this new telework environ-ment,” said Lt. Col. Chris Rehm, 771st TS Com-mander. “Sasha is a good case-in-point, the team quickly figured out how to

collaborate on Sasha devel-opment remotely and the progress they have made recently is remarkable.”

Recently while tele-working, the Sasha team has been working on a new unsupervised machine learning technique called clustering. While super-vised machine learning requires training a model with old data sets, cluster-ing can attempt to classify radiofrequency signals with no a priori knowledge. This type of analysis is useful for both refining a previously reconciled data set and for identifying new signals which were not previously known.

Sasha and tools like it ensure that EW data analy-sis keeps pace with an ever changing world and ensures that the squadron continues to provide timely, relevant, and accurate information in the fight to keep American warfighting capabilities the best in the world.

Innovation during COVID-19 Operations: 771st Test Squadron brings machine learning to data analysis

Sasha programmer Rony Maida,771st Test Squadron, developed the machine learning tool to aid engineers in data analytics. (Air Force photo by Giancarlo Casem)

10 • July 20, 2020

By Secretary of the Air Force staff report

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) – The Federal Employee Viewpoint Sur-vey will be available for Air Force civilian em-ployees starting July 15.

The FEVS is a govern-ment-wide, Office of Per-sonnel Management ad-ministered annual survey that Air Force civilian em-ployees have been partici-pating in since 2006. The approximately 100-ques-

tion survey takes 20-to-30 minutes to complete and is anonymous. The survey includes questions about employees’ work-life, job and organizational satis-faction, commitment, en-gagement, performance management and com-munication. It measures employee perceptions of whether their organization is successful.

Permanent, non-sea-sonal full and part-time civilian employees on-board as of October 2019

are eligible to participate and will receive a link for the survey via an email from OPM. The survey invitation and OPM re-minder emails will come from ‘EVAF@OPM.gov’ between July 15 and Au-gust 26.

In an effort to under-stand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the federal workforce, this year’s survey will be a census including ques-tions designed to gather information about how

employees have worked together, used tools, re-ceived communications, maintained health and safety, employed work/life flexibilities and more.

“Feedback through the FEVS provides insight into what our civilian Air-men think we’re doing right and where we need to improve,” said Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, Manpower, Personnel and Services, deputy chief of staff. “The more people participate, the better sense we get for

how to improve ourselves, our organizations and our Department.”

Kelly highlighted three objectives for this year’s upcoming Federal Em-ployee Viewpoint Survey:

a) Increase survey participation

b) Increase communicationand feedback betweenleaders and employeeson their concerns

c) Understand the Air Force in comparison

to other Departments within the Federal Government

“The 2020 FEVS pro-vides an opportunity to fur-ther strengthen communica-tions and understanding be-tween Air Force leadership and our civilian employ-ees,” Kelly said. “We are ea-ger to hear what our civilian Airmen have to say.”

For more information about the Federal Employ-ee Viewpoint Survey, visit https://www.opm.gov/fevs/.

Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey helps civilians voice their opinions

The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey will be available for Air Force civilian employees starting July 15. (Courtesy graphic)

By Maria PinelJoint Task Force Bravo Public Affairs

SOTO CANO AIR BASE, Honduras (AFNS) – A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemas-ter III from the 133rd Air National Guard in Minnesota transported a large donation of 44,180 pounds of humanitar-ian aid supplies to Soto Cano Air Base, June 26, through the U.S. Agency for International Devel-opment’s Denton Pro-gram.

The shipment was originally intended to support New Horizons, a U.S. Army South-led joint humanitarian ex-ercise that would have taken place in southern Honduras, but was can-celled due to COVID-19, and items were redirected to support local hospitals throughout Honduras.

The articles were do-nated by MAP Interna-tional and other organi-zations, and the donation was coordinated and fa-cilitated by the Joint Task

Force-Bravo Civil Affairs team, which frequently engages in the commu-nity.

“Our civil affairs teams are where policy meets people – we oper-ate within communities around Honduras to grow partnerships at the grass-roots level, enabling us to work side-by-side with our Honduran partners and provide meaningful assistance during difficult times,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Uherka, JTF-Bravo Civil Affairs director. “With the help of MAP International, USAID, and the Denton Program, coupled with our partnerships with the Honduran government—we are proud to get much-needed supplies to people across Honduras during this pandemic. We are Americans invested in America, and this do-nation truly represents that.”

The donation included 15 pallets of hygiene ar-ticles to be distributed at the regional hospital in Choluteca through the

Permanent Contingency Commission in Hondu-ras, four of which will be delivered to Tegucigalpa

and three in San Pedro Sula to support COV-ID-19 quarantine centers. The Denton Program is a

multi-agency effort and showcases the collabora-tive relationship between the Department of De-

fense, which provides coordination and trans-portation of the materials, and USAID.

Tech. Sgt. Heather Boutin and Senior Airman Megan Lenling, 133rd Airlift Wing’s Air Transportation Function air transportation specialists, direct and load medical supplies onto a C-17 Globemaster III during a Denton Humanitarian Assistance Program mission June 13 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Joint Air Reserve Station, Minnesota. The cargo was destined for people with disabilities in Danli, Honduras. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Bristol L. Evasco)

Minnesota ANG transports aid to Honduras through Denton Program

July 20, 2020 • 11

By Capt. Kenya Pettway Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs

JOINT BASE SAN A N T O N I O - R A N -DOLPH, Texas – In hon-or of the first women who became pilots of the U.S. Air Force, Air Education and Training Command officials renamed the Mar-tin Hall Conference Room, the Trailblazer Room, dur-ing a virtual ceremony here June 29.

Located at AETC headquarters, the newly renamed Trailblazer Room was dedicated to the first 10 women who earned their silver wings Sept. 2, 1977.

“The women of class 77-08 truly broke barri-ers,” said Lt. Gen. BradWebb, AETC commander,who presided over theceremony. “They livedthe fact that glass ceilingswere a reality simply be-cause they were women.These trailblazers pavedthe way for future genera-tions of female pilots andtheir influence on our AirForce is still felt today.”

The 10 women of un-dergraduate pilot train-ing class 77-08 who were honored are – Kathleen A. Cosand, Victoria K. Craw-ford, Mary E. Donahue, Connie J. Engel, Kathy LaSauce, Mary M. Liv-ingston, Susan D. Rogers, Carol A. Scherer, Christine E. Schott, and Sandra M.Scott.

In 1975, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Da-vid C. Jones, announced the launch of a test pro-gram that would enable women to enter pilot train-ing and staff a now all-volunteer force after the abolishment of the mili-tary draft following the Vietnam War.

“This was the first time, nearly three decades after the birth of the Air Force, that women were allowed to join the service as equals to men and enter pilot and navigator career fields,” said Webb. “This dedication will serve as a reminder for all of us of the courage these female pioneers showed while shattering those glass ceil-ings.”

Sept. 26, 1976, these 10 women, alongside their 35 male classmates, be-gan UPT at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, and cemented their place in history.

Accumulating more than 210 flight hours in the T-37 Tweet and T-38 Talonaircrafts, they successfully completed UPT and went on to achieve more histori-cal feats in their Air Force careers that pioneered fu-ture generations of women to follow.

Mary E. Donahue

Donahue became the first woman to serve as an instructor pilot assigned to the Air Force Academy, where she taught senior cadets to fly the T-41 train-er and was an educator in the department of math-ematical science.

Susan D. Rogers Rogers was the com-

mander of the first all-female C-9A Nightingale crew. Later, while sta-tioned at McGuire AFB, New Jersey, she com-

manded C-141s. Flying a C-141 Starlifter, Rogers evacuated victims of a bombing attack on Marinebarracks in Beirut, Leba-non.

She died from cancer in 1992 and left behind a legacy of excellence.

Christine E. Schott

Schott was the first woman to solo in the Northrop T-38A Talon at Williams AFB, Arizona.

She later became the first woman to qualify and serve as an aircraft commander on the C-9A Nightingale medical trans-port and command its first all-female aircrew.

Connie J. Engel

Engel, the class leader, was the first in her class to solo in the T-37 Nov. 30, 1976, earning her one of the three Distinguished Graduate awards, the Offi-cer Training Award for ex-hibiting “high qualities of military bearing and lead-ership,” and the Air Train-ing Commander’s Trophy as top graduate.

Following graduation, she became the first fe-male T-38 instructor and flew the T-38 chase for the space shuttle program.

Kathy LaSauce

LaSauce became the first female pilot to com-mand a C-141 and the first woman to serve as a presi-dential support pilot.

She joined the Air Force in 1972 and received one of only two slots avail-able for women to attend Air Force Officer Training School. After graduating OTS, LaSauce was select-ed as one of the first female officers in aircraft main-tenance, a newly opened career field for women at that time. Her experience in aircraft maintenance helped her gain one of the 10 slots for women to enter pilot training.

“I loved aircraft main-tenance,” said LaSauce. “I loved working around air-planes. When pilot train-ing opened for women, I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

Although LaSauce’s interest in becoming a pi-lot was not met with opti-mism by society, she did so anyway.

“I wanted to play the trumpet and they said ‘no, girls don’t play the trumpet,’ so I played the trumpet,” said LaSauce. “I wanted to be a drum major and they said ‘no, girls aren’t drum majors’ so I became a drum major. When I set my heart on doing something, I didn’t listen to those who told me I couldn’t.”

Sandra M. Scott

Scott became the first female tanker commander to perform alert duty for the Strategic Air Com-mand.

She joined Air Force ROTC at Oregon State University in 1970 af-ter school officials had opened the program to women only a year prior. Following her commis-sioning in 1973, she was stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, for weapons controller train-ing where she was first exposed to aviation.

After completing her first assignment, she went to King Salmon Air Force Station, Alaska, where she met pilots who were conducting alert missions. When the Air Force an-nounced its test program, she applied and was ac-cepted.

“My parents infused in me the idea that it wasn’t about me being a woman,” said Scott. “It was that I had abilities and that I could use those abilities to accomplish anything.”

In spite of the wom-en’s accomplishments during pilot training, they faced disparaging public opinion.

Some male flight in-structors opposed the test program and didn’t be-lieve women should fly, a position they expressed openly during training.

LaSauce recalled a time when an instructor told Livingston, “I don’t know why I’m teaching you how to fly the T-38 because you’ll never be

a fighter pilot.” LaSauce said her flight commander shared the same senti-ment, stating that if he had his way, none of the women would graduate.

In the face of these unique challenges, they knew that the future of women in aviation rested on their success.

“Women would not be flying combat missions, flying fighters or com-manding flying squadrons if we didn’t succeed,” said LaSauce. “We knew in our hearts we needed to do well.”

Although it was anoth-er 30 years before women were allowed to fly in combat missions, the 10

trailblazers forged a path for the women who fol-lowed.

“About a year later, female astronauts be-gan training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma,” said Gary Boyd, AETC command historian. “The success of the group ush-ered in the modern era of military aviation.”

Decades later, honor-ing their stories and the historical feats of each of the women from UPT class 77-08, uplifted the honorees.

“It warms my heart that Air Education and Training Command de-cided to tell our story,” said Scott. “It’s the story

of women who broke bar-riers.”

As of January 2020, women make up 21 per-cent of all Air Force members. Of the 328,255 active duty members, 68,470 are women, with 806 who serve as pilots, 347 navigators and 233 air battle managers, ac-cording to Air Force Per-sonnel Center officials.

“There is no denying the trailblazing women of class 77-08 were set up in such a way that failure would have been easy,” said Webb. “But that’s not what Airmen do. Through grit and determination not only did they succeed, they excelled.”

Trailblazers: AETC honors first women pilots in Air Force history

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mary Livingston speaks about her experiences in undergraduate pilot training during the Trailblazer Room dedication ceremony June 29 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, TX. Located in the AETC headquarters main building, the newly renamed Trailblazer Room was dedicated to the first 10 women who earned their silver wings Sept. 2, 1977. (U.S. Air Force photo by Sean M. Worrell)

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Sandra Scott speaks about her experiences in undergraduate pilot training during the Trailblazer Room dedication cer-emony June 29 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. (U.S. Air Force photo by Sean M. Worrell)

12 • July 20, 2020