FORT GEORGE F. MEADE, Md -- Nobody sees what happens behind the curtains when it comes to completing missions. The 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing Logistics Office is responsible for ensuring the readiness of the wing and negotiates over 80 support agreements every year that allows Airmen to accomplish their duties every day.
The mission of 70th ISRW Logistics Office is to develop, evaluate, monitor, inspect wing logistics activities; plan and support wing deployment activities; initiate, monitor, and update inter-service and inter-agency support agreements.
“You can't fly, fight or win without logisticians,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. April Nixon, 70th ISRW Logistics Office superintendent. “We are the Airmen behind the scenes, getting our war fighters out the door with individual protective equipment and proper training.”
Logistics is made up of two Air Force Specialty Codes, the 2G (logistics plans) and 2S (materiel management). Within logistics, sections are made up of three areas, wing deployment and readiness cell, material management section, and support agreements section.
“Once I got stationed in this wing, I quickly realized I had to learn much more detail about the unit manning document,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Victor Snyder, 70th ISRW Logistics Office plans section chief. “I had to learn how resource programming worked, what the National Intelligence Program is, and why the Intel Community in general functions so differently that the other functional communities in the Air Force.”
Not having an Air Force Logistics Readiness Squadron (LRS) here creates a challenging task for the wing’s Logistics team such as not having a warehouse for storing supplies and equipment. However, they to work closely with the 316th LRS at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, for support.
“We overcame that obstacle by meeting up with our counterparts at Andrews and developed a liaison program,” said Nixon. “This has allowed us to take over some basic functions locally to assist our customers. In return our customers have a place to go for readiness and supply functions without going all the way to Andrews. This effort has also helped relieve some workload from Andrews’ LRS.”
As a U.S. Army base tenant unit, there are many factors that are unique to the 70th ISRW that one would not normally experience anywhere else. Appreciating and respecting the challenges presented by that unique environment and finding a successful operation within that environment, that one would not get in a more traditional wing or Air Force base.
“Embracing those challenges and learning what I’ve been able to learn in this wing has been personally satisfying,” said Snyder. “Not to say every endeavor has ended the way I’d like it to or I’ve been able to accomplish everything I want to accomplish, but there is nowhere else in the Air Force I will get the opportunity to tackle the kinds of problems I get to tackle here.”