Into innovation: McConnell’s money momentum

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Michaela R. Slanchik
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
“How can we do less, do it better, do it faster, and be more efficient, be more lethal, and, ultimately, create a more ready and lethal joint fighting force?” asked Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright at the 2018 Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium.

“The answer is innovation,” he proclaimed.

In order to make this possible, the Air Force received $64 million this year to disperse among individual units, encouraging Airmen to come up with creative ways to better their units.

At the symposium in February, Gen. David L. Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, announced the plan to distribute these “Squadron Innovation Funds” as part of the National Defense Strategy and Goldfein and Wright’s Initiative for Innovation.

McConnell received $450,000 of these funds, meaning each squadron will have around $10,000 to fuel innovation and modernize the force at the unit level. The funds will allow Airmen to be true Air Force intrapreneurs and cue improvements that save money, develop leaders and modernize the force, giving time back to Airmen in return.

Upon receipt of funding news, Team McConnell members put their heads together and began brainstorming ideas to present to their commanders. By starting with the front-line Airmen, those at the lowest level were given the opportunity to voice their ideas.

“The inputs we received from the units across McConnell show how ready Airmen are to innovate their units,” said 1st Lt. William Mitchell, 22nd Comptroller Squadron flight commander.

The 349th Air Refueling Squadron submitted a proposal to use their share to turn their offices into active work spaces. They hope to purchase exercise equipment for the squadron to enable physical activity before and after long, confined flights while doing office work.

The 22nd Maintenance Squadron hopes to use their funds to invest in new fuel cell equipment, as well as a new inspection tracking system. The fuel cell will replace their current flashlights with LED rechargeable explosion-proof body lights in order to free their hands up while working and get their jobs done more quickly and efficiently.

The MXS also plans to purchase a 70-inch monitor for one of their major repair hangars. This monitor will replace a white board in displaying information about checklists, inbound parts and help the dock chiefs see which phases have been completed during periodic inspections and major repairs.

Additionally, the 22nd Civil Engineer Squadron submitted a request for virtual reality headsets to use for training scenarios, allowing shops to reduce training cost and time while increasing training environment flexibility.

Squadron commanders filtered through these and many other of their Airmen’s submissions and chose those that would make their units better to raise to the next level for approval.

“The squadron innovation funds are a fantastic resource to finally put the power of innovation back into the hands of the squadron commanders across the Air Force,” said Mitchell.

Wing leadership has begun examining proposals and distributing the proper funding to the squadrons.

“It’s time for us to give ideas an audience and incubate and integrate them for best effect,” said Goldfein.