Countdown to 2011 UCI begins

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Dean Stephens
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Inspector General
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Actually, the Black Hats are coming...to pens! The quaint three letter acronym, UCI (Unit Compliance Inspection) is 351 days from this Silver Wings edition. You might conjure up images of once a month wing exercises, recalls, commander in your chili, and other nefarious memories. Good! You should pass along UCI experiences and here is some news:

In January 2009, then Air Education and Training Command Inspector General, Col Monty Brock, eliminated the Field Exercise portion of our inspections.

He said, "This action transforms our Operational Readiness Inspections (ORIs) into UCIs...and will allow my team to execute a deeper and broader compliance examination of all readiness functions."

UCI's no longer entertain a field exercise that processes a few wing personnel through a deployment line, observes and grades their performance (SABC, weapons, cammo-up, etc) at a mock deployment site, and applies a score in the inspection report. However, the actual impact will probably be more folks graded overall. Can you spell tourniquet? Even here in AETC, USAF warriors are required to remain vigilant with warrior skill sets and they will be measured.

The mass of UCI measuring, however, comes in the form of an inspector in your duty section grading your processes against the governing publications. The best way to prepare for a UCI is to ensure you meet the intent (if not the actual letter of the law) of the publication AND document your processes. AETC Functional checklists are a starting point, but few MAJCOM checklists include Wing and below publications.

Commonly it is a CAFB Sup to something that will drop through the gap as we tie our hands locally.

This wing's accolades will get appropriately showcased to the inspectors, but they are here to measure your compliance with the publications. The new AETC/IG, Col Francis Brown, summed it up with, "the key to success on any CI [compliance Inspection] is a compliance based culture and a robust, top-down driven , vertical and horizontal self-inspection program...CIs are NOT snapshots and without a continual focus on programs across the wing you can expect things to atrophy over time."

The 14 FTW has a robust self inspection program. We just finished one of our bi-annual assessments (15 Feb - 15 Mar) and our next one is in August. "Robust" programs rely on everyone taking an honest measure of compliance and not checking "in the green" because you think that is what the commander wants to see. No, now is the time to focus on those areas that might need the commander's attention/resources to finally get them "greened up."

As we go "green" the goal is 100% compliance. The countdown to the March 6 to 15, 2011 UCI has started. Now is the time to make sure you are prepared.