Command Corner: Jan. 25

  • Published
  • By Col. Steven Harrison
  • 436th AW commander
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Sunday evening, the Air Force's evaluation team for the Commander-in-Chief's Installation Excellence Award will arrive at Dover Air Force Base! As one of two finalists for this prestigious award, we'll be hosting the evaluation team until Wednesday morning while they review dozens of world-class innovations developed by Team Dover's outstanding Airmen. In 23 years, no wing in Air Mobility Command has ever won this award ... but Dover has a reputation for breaking paradigms.

In fact, the focal points of the evaluation are products of the same elements that are key to our trademark mission success: full-spectrum excellence; a passion for continuous process improvement; yes-oriented leadership; top-down and bottom-up communication; mutual support; and leadership at all levels that is both aggressive and creative. These are all recurring themes that we discuss frequently, and that you epitomize.

Take a quick browse through this week's Airlifter and you'll find more snapshots of what make Team Dover the most innovative, dynamic, resourceful, and mission-focused unit in the Air Force. While 21 of the Air Force's finest "Port Dawgs" team are deployed with Marines at Al Taqaddum, Iraq, the Air Force's Best Privatized Housing Team takes care of their families at home. Through "green tricycles" and environmentally-friendly wash racks, we're supporting America's long-term health. Meanwhile, we are exporting innovation by sharing AFSO 21 expertise throughout our Air Force, and even our British allies. That's just this week, and that is just at home.

Meanwhile, nearly 400 Dover Airmen are deployed abroad in support of the Global War on Terrorism ... and this isn't Dover's primary Air and Space Expeditionary Force cycle. Our Airmen are flying, maintaining, loading, and protecting the mobility missions that constitute the bulk of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom sorties.

Through the air, they provide whole blood to Marines in Afghanistan, rapid re-supply of ammunition to Soldiers in Iraq, life-sustaining supplies to coalition forces, and life-saving medical evacuation to injured service members wherever and whenever they call. Today alone, the Dover tail flash will touch down on 5 continents, promising friend and foe alike that no area of the globe is beyond America's reach or commitment.

And our Airmen aren't just conducting airlift missions ... they are building third-world infrastructure, developing the justice and economic systems of our former adversaries and future allies, securing our bases, protecting convoys, detecting and defeating improvised explosive devices, working air traffic control, conducting detainee operations, and even training the Iraqi Air Force.

At home, our 24/7/365 mission is equally critical. As the East Coast "Superport", Dover is the sole transit point for all channel cargo to Iraq. Most ports would be proud to lift more than any other wing in the continental U.S. The Dover Superport is lifting more than EVERY other wing in the CONUS ... combined. That's not a Dover AFB mission, an AMC mission or even an Air Force mission -- it's a Department of Defense mission.

In fact, from the Air Force's sole Regionalized Rapid C-5 Isochronal Inspection facility, to the active-duty's sole source of TF-39 engines and auxiliary power units, Team Dover consistently contributes Air Force and DoD-level support that belies its small population, geographic size, and range of facilities. Lives depend on it, and no organization better knows the measure of American service and sacrifice than Team Dover, the home of the DoD's only stateside Port Mortuary. Whatever the time, whatever the weather or circumstances, Team Dover is there to ensure our fallen heroes' first return to American soil occurs with the eternal dignity, honor and respect they deserve.

The CINC Installation Excellence Award recognizes those who have most effectively used the resources they've been provided to advance the mission. No military organization's mission is more important, no one conducts their mission more magnificently, and no one makes more valuable use of the resources provided than you. Saving lives and delivering freedom, around the world and around the clock, at home and abroad, through innovation and full-spectrum mission excellence - more reasons why Team Dover is "America's Preeminent Expeditionary Airlift Team!" See you at the Victory Rally.