Top Air Force Stories for Feb. 16, 2012

Today's stories include:

AFAF names winners of video contest 
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123290440

Mobile Web app makes personnel accountability easier 
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123290415

Deployed Airman watches wife's commissioning 8,000+ miles away 
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123290350

Enrollment for free culture course ends Feb. 29 
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123290325

AF flight surgeon makes mark during historic space flight 
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123290188



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AFAF names winners of video contest

by Eric M. Grill
Air Force Personnel, Services and Manpower Public Affairs

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas (AFNS) -- Air Force Assistance Fund officials named the AFAF 2012 fundraising campaign online video contest winners Feb. 15.

The video contest was designed to motivate Airmen and their families to learn more about the annual AFAF campaign and the four AFAF affiliate charities -- Air Force Villages, Air Force Aid Society, General and Mrs. Curtis E. LeMay Foundation, and Air Force Enlisted Village.

The winner of the 59 second category is the 48th Medical Group at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, and their "Who's Watchin!" submission.

The winner of the 29 second category is "The Pelican Promoters" team from the 9th Airlift Squadron at Dover AFB, Del., with their "The Safe Way to Help" submission.

Judges evaluated video content, cinematography, creativity and the number of online views for each video.

"The scoring was as close as some Air Force quarterly awards boards I've seen in the past," said William D'Avanzo, the Air Force voting action officer and fundraising chief.

Winning videos are featured on the AFAF YouTube channel and will be played at the 9th Annual Air Force Charity Ball in Springfield, Va., on March 24. The AFAF will also name a 2012 Air Force Aid Society educational grant after the winning teams in recognition of their efforts, D'Avanzo said.

"The contest was a lot of fun," D'Avanzo said. "We knew we had a lot of talent in the Air Force, and it's now on display for everyone to see on the AFAF YouTube channel."

The AFAF was established as a venue to raise funds for the charitable affiliates that support the Air Force family in need, including active duty, Reserve, Guard, dependents, retirees and surviving spouses. These organizations provide aid in an emergency, educational support, and a secure retirement home for Air Force members' widows or widowers in need of financial assistance.

For more information on the AFAF affiliate charities, go to http://www.afassistancefund.org.  

(Tech. Sgt. Steve Grever contributed to this story.)

Mobile Web app makes personnel accountability easier

by Jon Hanson
Air Force Personnel, Services and Manpower Public Affairs

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas (AFNS) -- Software developers have created a new mobile Web application that allows total force Airmen the ability to account for themselves and family members from their smartphone during a crisis or natural disaster.

During a crisis, the Air Force uses the Air Force Personnel Accountability and Assessment System to account for and assess the needs of the Air Force's Total Force -- active-duty Airmen, selected Reserve members, Department of the Air Force and non-appropriated fund civilian employees, Air Force contractors (assigned overseas) and family members.

AFPAAS becomes operational, or active, at leadership request during crises to allow the total force to account for themselves and their family's safety and whereabouts. Now individuals have improved access through certain smartphones to the accountability and assessment features of AFPAAS.

"The Air Force is taking AFPAAS to the next level to align with what is used in the private sector every day," said Brian Angell, the Air Force Personnel Center Personnel Readiness Cell operations chief. "This wireless capability enhances Air Force accountability during crises and natural disasters."

In the case of an active AFPAAS event, members can use a smartphone to log into the application via their user identification and password. The application is accessible on iPhones, Androids and certain touch-screen Blackberry phones; however it is not available on iPads or non-touch-screen phones.

Once logged in, users can account for themselves and their family members. Other available functions include the ability to update sponsor and evacuation contact and location information as well as complete a needs survey if necessary.

The mobile Web app uses the browser on the phone versus downloading an application and uses the same URL as AFPAAS, said Donna Williamson, the lead developer with SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific. The site recognizes the person is using a smartphone and will present the site in a mobile format.

The Air Force recently tested the application and shared their findings with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Pacific, which will make updates and improvements to the application as necessary. As AFPAAS improves, so will the application and functionalities.

Each military service uses their own Department of Defense-funded application to assist with their specific personnel accountability and assessment system during a crisis or natural disaster.

When there is not an on-going event, officials said the total force should keep their contact information updated by logging into the secure AFPAAS website from a personal computer at https://afpaas.af.mil.

Deployed Airman watches wife's commissioning 8,000+ miles away

by Senior Airman Luis Loza Gutierrez
319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AFNS) -- One Air Force couple put modern technology to work to help keep military tradition alive during a ceremony earlier this month.

Shortly after being commissioned as a second lieutenant on Feb. 2, Donna Tluczek received her first salute from her husband, Tech. Sgt. Pawel Tluczek.

But because he's deployed more than 8,000 miles away in Southwest Asia, the salute was broadcast from a computer screen.

"I didn't think I would be this nervous, but now that this moment is here I really am," said Lieutenant Tluczek, a former staff sergeant. The commissioning ceremony was held at Air Force ROTC Detachment 610 headquarters inside the University of North Dakota Armory.

Military tradition dictates that an officer give a silver dollar to the first enlisted member to offer a salute.

Lieutenant Tluczek, a native of Lodge Pole, Neb., raised her hand to the web camera, showing her husband a shiny silver dollar.

"This is waiting for you when you get back," she said to her smiling husband, the NCO in charge of the 319th Logistical Readiness Squadron's special purpose shop.

"I'm severely proud of my wife," said Sergeant Tluczek while tapping his chest with a closed right fist. "I miss the people (at Grand Forks AFB), and I miss my wife's hugs."

Lieutenant Tluczek was stationed as an enlisted member at Grand Forks for three years, and served as a radar maintenance and electronics specialist.

She was accepted into the Airman Education and Commissioning Program (AECP) and spent 2 ½ years with the ROTC detachment at UND.

Under the program, which the Air Force has now suspended indefinitely, she remained on active-duty while attending school as a full-time student.

She graduated in December 2011 with a bachelor's degree in nursing, and staying true to the Air Force core value of "Excellence in all we do," she graduated with honors. She recently passed North Dakota's state boards test for nursing, solidifying her official status as a BSN-registered nurse.

"AECP provided a great avenue for me to commission, and although the program is currently suspended I hope my story will encourage others to look at other opportunities and programs in becoming an officer," said Lieutenant Tluczek. "Yes, there will be challenges, but it's well worth it."

Her next stop is Commissioned Officer Training at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., later this month. She'll then have to complete the Air Force Nurse Transition Program at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Capt. Anthony Dremann, Air Force ROTC Det. 610 recruiting flight commander, lauded Tluczek for her hard work.

"It certainly has been a long and difficult road for her to get here," Dremann said. "Sergeant Tluczek showed high potential as a cadet, and there's no doubt in my mind she's going to do great."

As for Sergeant Tluczek, he said he plans to be back in time to see his wife complete NTP and collect that silver dollar waiting for him back home.






Enrollment for free culture course ends Feb. 29

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) -- Registration for the spring "Introduction to Culture" course, an online self-paced undergraduate course that helps enlisted Airmen improve their cross-cultural competence, ends Feb. 29.

The course explores subjects such as elements of culture, family, gender, religion, belief systems, sports and other cultural domains. It also helps Airmen operationalize this knowledge through cross-cultural communication, relations and conflict resolution.

"ITC students should anticipate a similar amount of work to any other in-residence college-level course," said anthropologist Patricia Fogarty, the lead course developer. "Some students find ITC challenging, particularly those who expect it to be a computer-based training course. They also tell us it's engaging, interesting and relevant to their work."

Three hundred seats remain for this general education course which fulfills three resident hours of either social science or program elective credit required for CCAF degrees. Only enlisted active duty, Air Reservists or Air National Guardsmen who are eligible to pursue a degree in the Community College of the Air Force program may take the course.

Although the course provides CCAF credits, that's not the main benefit, according to one Air Force noncommissioned officer.

"I liked the in-depth analysis of each of the topics, and the way it related specifically to the military, and actual situations we might face in a deployed environment or overseas assignment..." said Staff Sgt. Russell Delaney, a recent ITC graduate from the 727th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron. "It helped me to better understand how this information could be applied to a real-life scenario I might face in the future, both personally and professionally."

ITC is one of two online courses AFCLC offers that result in college-credit. The other course is Introduction to Cross-Cultural Communication. Registration for CCC course will begin April 5.

These courses, including all instructional material, are provided at no cost, and delivered via AU's web-based Blackboard Learning Management System. Internet access is required.

For the latest information on courses and other resources, see the AFCLC's public website at www.culture.af.mil, and click on the "Culture Education/QEP" tab, or follow the AFCLC on twitter at www.twitter.com/afclc.


AF flight surgeon makes mark during historic space flight

FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (AFNS) -- The American public remembers John Glenn for his solo orbit around Earth. They remember Neil Armstrong for his walk on the moon.

But few remember how Col. (Dr.) Vance H. Marchbanks Jr., one of the first black flight surgeons in the Army and the first in the Air Force, made it possible for them and all other astronauts to complete their historic journeys.

Marchbanks, head physician for the Mercury Project, monitored Glenn during his flight around Earth. Responsible for determining the effects of space flight on man, Marchbanks collected vital medical data on the astronauts before, during and after their flights.

Before that moment, he was already one of the pioneers in both aeronautical research and aerospace medicine.

Marchbanks was actually associated with the military from birth, born at Fort Washakie, Wyo., the son of an Army cavalry NCO who would go on to be a warrant officer and later a commissioned officer. In addition to attending schools in Chicago, Marchbanks would spend his early years at Fort Huachuca, in southern Arizona, and would attend college at nearby University of Arizona at Tucson.

As an undergrad, Marchbanks was not permitted to live in a dormitory. Because of his color, he was forced to live in a boarding house off campus. The only place he was permitted to eat was at the local railroad station where he often found cockroaches had been placed in his food.

Not one to dwell on personal injustices, Marchbanks went on to attend Howard University's medical school and residency before heading to Tuskegee, Ala., to work at a veteran's hospital. It was there he met Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., who would play a role in Marchbanks involvement during World War II. He began his military career when he was called to duty in 1941 and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C. Marchbanks later completed the correspondence course for the Army Air Corps' School of Aviation Medicine.

"It was a whole new field, full of glamour, but, of course, without thoughts of space," he recalled in a speech to aspiring astronauts.

After a brief stint as a flight surgeon with the 302nd Fighter Squadron at Selfridge Field outside of Detroit, Marchbanks re-connected with new commander, Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., before deploying to Italy with the unit in early 1944.

Maj. Marchbanks became one of the first of the unit's flight surgeons to centralize medical support under one Army Air Corps organization. He and his staff faced everything from frostbite and ear infections from pilots in poorly heated, high altitude cockpits to combat casualties and routine sick calls at the main camps.

After the Army Air Corps became the nucleus of the modern-day Air Force, Marchbanks continued to distinguish himself. Among the many honors during his lifetime, Marchbanks received two Air Force Commendation Medals for research projects. One was for the design of an oxygen mask tester that became a standard item on air base equipment. The other was for his work with B-52 Stratofortress crews, in which he studied the signs of stress and developed a rating system for testing the effects of high-altitude air travel on B-52 crews. The stress tests and rating system he developed was later used in astronaut training.

After his retirement from the Air Force in 1964, he oversaw medical testing of the moonsuit and backpack that were eventually used in the Apollo space missions. However it was his pioneering study of sickle cell anemia that led to the inclusion of more blacks as pilots and astronauts.

It was his friendship with the Tuskegee Airmen that helped him right a wrong that ended many military careers or kept young men from even applying. Marchbanks took on the military's policy on sickle cell anemia, an inherited disease, primarily affecting people of African and Mediterranean descent.

During the 1970s, if the military found the genetic trait for sickle cell in the blood of healthy service members, they were discharged. In a three-year study Marchbanks drew blood from black Airmen he knew during World War II.

He published his findings in an essay titled "Sickle Cell Trait and the Black Airman." The essay helped to convince the military that people who carried the trait did not necessarily develop the deadly anemia. The military ultimately ended its practice of discharging service members who had the trait.

A man who saw many doors closed -- and later opened -- to blacks in the military, Marchbanks was no stranger to racial discrimination. But his sheer determination and will to succeed made him an aerospace leader.