When someone starts talking about ways to streamline operations, you might think old-timers would want to hit the snooze button. Not so for at least one 26-year employee at Ogden Air Logistics Center in Utah, who, according to Gen. Bruce Carlson, head of Air Force Materiel Command, said he has “never enjoyed coming to work as much as I do now.” That comment set the tone for Utah’s Annual Focus on Defense Symposium, which took a look at the Air Force’s new Smart Ops 21—the latest in lean and continuous process improvement initiatives. Speaking at the symposium, the Air Staff’s top loggie, Lt. Gen. Donald Wetekam, admitted that in the beginning he “wasn’t completely sold on the idea of Lean.” Wetekam continued, “Within six months, I was committed.”
Airmen and Guardians in the Active and Reserve component, as well as civilian employees, in “mission critical and high-risk populations” are now required to receive influenza vaccinations annually to “preserve force readiness,” according to a recent Department of the Air Force memo.