Sumpter Smith Joint National Guard Base, Ala. -- This month’s Unit Spotlight is Current Operations (Current Ops), within the 117th Operations Group!
Current Ops is exactly what it sounds like, the current operations happening every day. This includes daily scheduling, training missions, scheduling what training both pilots and boom operators need and how much fuel our receivers need. They also work in conjunction with maintenance, host aviation resource management, squadron aviation resource management and training to make sure the mission happens.
"Usually if anyone has questions, I work to get answers for them from Air Mobility Command or Tanker Airlift Control Center for taskers or anything like that. I am trying to be that liaison between them and the entity asking for the asset in order to keep things clear,” said Maj. Jeremiah Goldsmith, Chief of Current Operations. “Long range planning is just making sure that we are coordinating between our host nation and where we are coming from. We are also building those missions in our system which allows the Air Force to see everything. That way it is legal and not something happening at random.”
Both the 99th and 106th Air Refueling Squadrons are totally integrated together, so they all have access to the same systems and missions. The enlisted tend to run Current Ops and while the officers do the same job, they mainly provide top coverage in case there are any issues. Planners and schedulers work to prepare training missions.
“We have one civilian that works in the shop and three full-time military members. Everything is typically run by drill status guardsmen (DSG) on temporary technician schedules all year round from September to September,” Goldsmith said. “It allows Current Ops to utilize them and gives them opportunities to fly on local missions, get trained to move towards being an instructor boom operator or being an aircraft instructor.”
Current Ops is considered a special duty assignment, so there is no set technical training or special school. Aircrew attend their technical training where they receive part of the Current Ops training. When they return to their unit the majority of their training is done during their on-the-job training.
“Someone doesn’t have to be aircrew, but it is recommended because the questions are geared towards the aircrew side because we are looking to make sure the training is most efficient for the aircrew and then also making sure we are working around their schedules,” Goldsmith said. “Most of our aircrew are DSG so we want to make sure their training will work in the time we have available. We help each other out.”