Page 3 - Nellis Creech NTTR Bullseye 3-4-16

BULLSEYE News 3March 4, 2016

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Military Spouse Employment Coral Academy of Science
Partnership reaches milestone
Informational session for special needs children
By DOD News, Defense Media Activity
During the information ses-
WASHINGTON—The Defense Department announced on Feb. 29 that sion Coral Academy of Science
the Military Spouse Employment Partnership program has now partnered Las Vegas, Chief Academic Of-
with 300 employers, according to officials from the DOD Spouse Education ficer and Special Education
and Career Opportunities Office. Director will discuss and an-
swer questions on the school’s
The program, launched in June 2011 by Jill Biden, wife of Vice President academic programs and special
Joe Biden, is an employment and career partnership connecting military needs information for students.
spouses to partner organizations and companies who have committed
to recruit, hire, promote and retain military spouses in portable careers. March 11 and 17: 10 a.m. to 2
p.m. at the Nellis Air Force Base,
“This is such an exciting and important milestone for the program and Hunt Housing Center
for the thousands of military spouses around the world who search for
meaningful employment and career opportunities,” said Rosemary Wil- Note: Contact CASLV Special
liams, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community Education Services Director,
and family policy. Linda Byrnes or Chief Aca-
demic Officer Candy Farthing
“The Military Spouse Employment Partnership addresses the employ- at 702-776-6529, or email info@
ment challenges facing military spouses while providing partner employers cora lacademyLV.org, prior to
with access to a pool of highly qualified military spouses,” she said. the meeting to ensure the school
representatives can answer your
The partnership includes corporations, small businesses and other specific questions.
organizations that post job openings on the Military Spouse Employment
Partnership Career Portal, mentor military spouses and other employers,
and provide employment data on military spouses hired, officials said.

“The talent of military spouses can strengthen the economy, military
families, the Defense Department and the nation,” said Eddy Mentzer, the
associate director of the family readiness policy for DOD’s military com-
munity and family policy office. “Partnership companies and organizations
have hired more than 90,000 military spouses.”

The partnership is part of DOD’s Spouse Education and Career Op-
portunities Program, which seeks to reduce the significant unemployment
rate and wage gap currently experienced by military spouses.

99TH CES, from page 1__________ the 526 pilots at Creech and we provide through the fire prevention program, they The members of the 99th Fire Protec-
fire protection for them and the airfield,” limited the damage to only about $600,000 tion Flight had no idea that they had won
includes Nellis AFB with all the aircraft said Thompson. “Understanding the and saved $490 million in the process.” these awards until Maj. Gen. Timothy S.
and Creech AFB with all the remotely pi- Creech mission, a lot of those pilots are Green, Air Force Director of Civil Engi-
loted aircraft. Also, we are responsible for flying combat missions half way around “The fire prevention section is also re- neers, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics,
structural firefighting, hazmat response, the world with remotely piloted aircraft. sponsible for the creation of the military Engineering and Force Protection, Head-
medical response and all other hazards.” They flew over 209,000 hours and 12,300 family housing fire safety training pro- quarters U.S. Air Force, broke the news
combat sorties in 2015. We kept them gram,” said Thompson. “It’s a program that during his visit on Feb. 24.
The Air Force Fire Department of the safe while they prosecuted 22,900 enemy requires newcomers to the base who are
Year Award takes into account all aspects targets. By us being there to provide medi- going to live in military family housing to “After he made those announcements
of the fire department; management, cal and fire protection for the building the take the fire prevention training and pass a the crew was pretty boisterous and there
operations, training, fire prevention and pilot sits in is how we feel we help enable test before they are issued the keys to their was a lot of high-fives going around,”
safety. The scoring looks at: emergency those missions to go on.” house. We like to think that the program has said Thompson. “It was a cool day to be
response, firefighter awards, customer played a significant role in the fact that there a Nellis-Creech firefighter.”
outreach, public educations, training, The factors that are looked at for the Air hasn’t been a house fire on Nellis AFB since
innovation and initiative. Force Fire Prevention of the Year Award are 2011, which is pretty impressive.” The success of the 99th CES Fire
inspections, engineering and code enforce- Protection Flight can be attributed to
The Nellis-Creech fire department is ment as well as innovation of community Winning the award meant a lot to the having a well-trained, disciplined, and
the third busiest fire department in the and public education programs. Four fire fire department and the members of the fire motivated team that shows pride and
Air Force by call volume as they safely inspectors and one assistant fire chief make prevention section. excellence in their craft.
mitigated 1,600 emergencies in the 2015 up the fire inspection team and they are
calendar year. responsible for running the largest fire pre- “It’s nice to see your work come to frui- “It all has to come together,” said
vention program in Air Combat Command. tion and be recognized for the hard work Thompson. “You have to have well
“On Nellis AFB there are approxi- the team puts in,” said Rob Tello, 99th CES trained firefighters and effective state-
mately 150 planes assigned, and then “Our fire prevention section trained fire inspector. of-the-art equipment. The training is a
you have 100 to 150 plus planes coming 12,000 people at Nellis and Creech on how huge part of the award and a huge part
in for each Red Flag and other major to use fire extinguishers,” said Thompson. Senior Master Sgt. Chancey Kruger, 99th in everything that we do. To say that you
exercises that take place at Nellis AFB,” “In 2015 we had 33 total fires at Nellis and CES deputy fire chief, won the Air Force are the best of the best and there is no
said Thompson. “My estimate would be Creech AFB. People we trained put out Senior Fire Officer of the Year Award. fire department in the Air Force better
an extra 2,000 planes that come in that seven building fires and nine aircraft fires than you at a particular moment, that’s
we are responsible for protecting dur- with fire extinguishers before firefighters Kruger won the award for his job per- a pretty cool feeling.”
ing the 20 or so Large Force Exercises even got there. That’s a testament to our fire formance, accomplishments, technical
hosted by Nellis each year. We respond prevention and training program. The fact competence, initiative and resourcefulness “Winning four out of eight awards is
to anything from a standard in-flight that the people we trained are able to just while on the job. pretty cool. I’ve been around for a long
emergency for hydraulic failure or engine run over and pick up a fire extinguisher and time and I don’t know if that has ever
malfunction to actual aircraft fires and do what we taught them to do shows how “I was beside myself when I found out happened before.”
crashes, we do it all.” successful the training program is. that I won,” said Kruger. “I didn’t think I
had won. I’m very humbled to have received The four Air Force Level Awards that
The Creech AFB mission protection “Those nine aircraft had a total value of this award because I feel that there are better the 99th CES Fire Protection Flight won
played a huge role in winning the 2015 $491.6 million. By those maintainers us- people than I am who haven’t received this go along with the already impressive five
Air Force large Fire Department of the ing the fire prevention skills they learned award. I had some great mentorship from ACC awards they earned earlier this
Year award. “We provided protection of retired and active duty military members year. They will be competing in March
and a great team effort that helped me win for Department of Defense level awards.
this award.”