KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- A Wing of Choice member received Air Force Reserve Command Inspector General honors.
Devon Burton, director of the 403rd Wing Inspector General Inspections program, earned the Lt. Gen. Howard W. Leaf Award in Civilian Category II B.
The award recognizes outstanding enlisted, officer, and civilian inspectors in the U.S. Air Force assigned to an IG team with exceptional performance that is above and beyond the completion of daily mission requirements.
Burton, an Air Reserve Technician, or a full-time civil service employee who is also a lieutenant colonel and pilot in the Air Force Reserve, said she can’t take all the credit for her award. She attributes her success to the IGI team and leadership support.
“Leadership worked relentlessly to remove barriers for the IGI team,” she said. “The IGI team members showed up and gave their best every day. That is how we achieved this win. What means the most to me is that the 403rd Wing was recognized at the AFRC level, and I feel accomplished knowing I helped the wing achieve that level of recognition.”
IGI helps units determine their compliance and readiness. They do this through the inspection system which evaluates four major graded areas: Managing Resources, Leading People, Improving the Unit and Executing the Mission.
The Inspection System is the umbrella that covers all inspections and directs the use of the Commander’s Inspection Program, or CCIP, to determine wing-wide mission readiness and compliance, said Burton.
Commanders at each level can direct their inspection program to look into the areas of their organizations where they may have weaknesses in their units. Burton’s office executes the CCIP, which is composed of the wing-level inspection program and the unit self-assessment program, or USAP. The IGI conducts exercises, inspections throughout the wing, and deals with special interest items.
“Creating transparency with unit leadership was accomplished through clarifying roles and expectations, setting the inspection schedules around their operations tempo, and prioritizing focus areas for each unit every month,” said Burton. “These efforts coupled with a ‘white hat’ customer service attitude outside of formal inspections helped us build trust with Airmen and leadership.”
IGI can’t facilitate this CCIP by themselves, so they rely on the help of subject matter experts throughout the wing to validate unit’s compliance in executing the four graded areas.
These subject matter experts, who serve on the Wing Inspection Team, are trained and sworn in by the wing commander giving them the authority to perform inspections. They observe, detect and report on the performance and condition of the area they are assigned to inspect. Self-assessment program managers (USAPMs) also play a key role by managing deficiencies in the Management Internal Controls Toolset and inspection results in the Inspector General Evaluation Management System.
To improve the CCIP planning, execution and corrective action management processes, Burton and her team, focused on improving training for unit self-assessment program managers, WIT members and commanders.
“The question my team asks before implementing any requirement is: How can we simplify this task to make it as easy as possible for 403rd Airmen and leaders to be successful,” she said. “The easier we can make the task to achieve, the more compliance we get, so this is a win-win.”
When developing training for USAPMs, WIT, and commanders, they started with the desired end state then determine the tools needed for the member to perform at that level, she explained.
“We’ve found that everyone wants to be successful, it’s a matter of ensuring that they have the training and materials needed from our office in order to execute their role at a high level,” Burton said.
The 403rd Wing Commander, Col. John Benson, congratulated Burton and her team for their efforts in running the wing’s inspection program.
“Our members put in a lot of hard work over the past two years to improve processes and that work is reflected in how disciplined we are in creating a compliant, disciplined, and lean organization,” said Benson. “Our IGI team is a critical part of that process and plays a huge role in ensuring we are ready. When this year’s Unit Effectiveness Inspection is complete, we can be proud of what we have accomplished and the outstanding service our IGI team has provided to this wing.”