502nd ABW, mission partners 'excellent' during inspection

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Melissa White
  • JBSA-Lackland Public Affairs
3/16/2012 - JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- The 502nd Air Base Wing and its mission partners, the 12th Flying Training Wing and the 37th Training Wing, all earned overall "excellent" ratings as a result of recent compliance inspections conducted by the Air Education and Training Command Inspector General Team.

The inspections were held independently at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph and JBSA-Lackland, Feb. 6-13 and March 5-9, respectively.

Brig Gen. Theresa C. Carter, 502nd ABW commander, briefed 502nd ABW personnel on the results during a series of commander's calls held Wednesday.

"I'm incredibly proud of everyone here," Carter said during the outbrief. "You all put forth a tremendous amount of effort and should be proud of the work you put in. My challenge for you now is to sustain this level of excellent performance."

The 802nd Mission Support Group and 902nd MSG were rated "excellent".

Prior to this assessment, only one of the last seven MSGs inspected in AETC earned a rating higher than satisfactory.

In addition, both the Installation Exercise Program Office (IEPO) and the first emergency management exercise (EME) conducted in February at JBSA-Randolph earned an "outstanding" rating.

This marks only the second time in 14 years that an EME earned an "outstanding" rating.
"The IEPO and EME grades are particularly noteworthy when I consider where we were last July and how far we've come as a joint base team. The 502nd ABW and all of our mission partners, especially our medics with the 59th Medical Wing, clearly demonstrated our ability to work together in response to an emergency and manage the consequences," said Carter.

"This inspection took a lot of hard work by a lot of people and I'm very proud," said 59th MDW Commander Maj. Gen. Byron Hepburn. "But, we can't rest on our laurels. We will take the IG findings and learn from them as we continue to build a premier ambulatory surgical center here at Lackland."

"Going into the inspection, I told our squadron commanders that I wasn't worried too much about grades because, 'it's clear that you all are the engine that makes Team Lackland go.
You deliver excellent base support every day, and you do it right,'" said Col. Richard Houghton, 802nd MSG commander.

"No matter what rating your individual team was assessed, you all are part of an excellent mission support group and an excellent air base wing. Congratulations," he said.

The 37th Training Wing also earned an overall "excellent" rating from the AETC IG Team.

Two of the wing's groups, the Defense Language Institute English Language Center and the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, received "outstanding" overall ratings as did the wing's inspection office.

The 37th, 737th and 937th Training Groups all were rated "excellent".

At the wing's AETC IG team outbrief held Monday, Col. Eric Axelbank, 37th TRW commander, paid close attention to everyone's reaction while the inspectors narrated the slide presentation.

"I am proud of this wing and its people," said Axelbank. "It was a rewarding experience seeing the group and squadron leadership team reactions to the IG's superlative reviews of our wing.

"I value the quality of our people and the effort we make in fulfilling Air Force core values and our vision as the training standard of excellence," he said.

"Regardless of the result, units are always better after an inspection because we have an independent evaluation of what we're doing well and where we need to focus additional attention and resources. Col. Mike Brown and his inspection team did a fabulous job providing all AETC units with a comprehensive, thorough and fair evaluation," said Carter.