An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Caring for people: Airmen give feedback

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Buzanowski
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  More than 50 Airmen and family members offered ideas May 23 to improve the quality of life for the people who live and work on Fairchild. Each installation hosts a "Caring for People" forum then the Air-Force level issues are forwarded through each base's major command up the chain.

"We are using this as a feedback mechanism for how Airmen and families are doing at Fairchild. We want to hear what services are good, what needs improvement or what we need to provide," said Col. Paul Guemmer, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander, to the participants who represented a cross section of squadrons across the base.

The colonel explained the base's Community Action Information Board will receive all the feedback to take action on the items that fall within Fairchild's scope keeping in mind the best use of resources, time and money.

Issues will be assigned to a particular point of contact who will then report on the issue's progress to the CAIB.

"The issue needs to be reported back to the CAIB and to me before it's closed out," said Colonel Guemmer.

"We want to act quickly to make changes and we want to provide feedback to you through public affairs - our Facebook page and the newspaper. This way you understand why we could or couldn't do something about the issue. We want you to know that your time here was well-spent and we value your input."

Chief Master Sgt. Rudy Lopez, 92nd ARW command chief master sergeant, said "The Air Force is committed to continually improving the quality of life for all of our Airmen.

"In an environment of competing requirements and limited resources we need your best ideas to be able to positively affect your lives at Fairchild. We want the opportunity to support you and the best way to do that is for you to be involved in this process."
Quality of life issues that Fairchild can't fix on their own will be forwarded to Air Mobility Command for consolidation with other AMC-base initiatives, and then they will be forwarded to Headquarters Air Force for discussion this summer in the Air Force "Caring for People" summit.

Members from the 92nd Medical Group and the Airmen & Family Readiness Center facilitated the day-long event. Airmen and family members were divided into three different groups to discuss issues at Fairchild. These three groups prioritized their ideas, briefed them to the other groups and then consolidated the proposals.

The wing commander and command chief were briefed on all the issues that would be brought before the CAIB for action.

Some of the issues addressed involved Right Start, deployment support for dependents and information flow to junior Airmen.