3rd MUNS inventory assures the mission

  • Published
  • By Air Force 1st Lt. Matthew Chism
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  You are getting ready to leave the house for your daily physical training before work. Your PT gear and reflective belt are on and your uniform bag is in hand to change afterward. The workout ends, you head in to get cleaned up and change. Going through your bag, you realize you didn't pack your boots. It is easy to leave, get your boots, and explain to your supervisor why you are late.

Now imagine if a simple omission like this could impact more than 60,000 people, potentially cause a base lock down, bring multiple missions to a grinding halt and even risk lives. Welcome to munitions.

Munitions personnel from the 3rd Munitions Squadron completed their semi-annual inventory Sept. 6, which ensures the munitions storage information contained in the report data is perfect.

"We owe it to the taxpayers to be good stewards with the resources that we are given, especially in the current fiscal environment," said Air Force Maj. Craig Williams, 3rd MUNS commander. "Every resource we have is vital to our nation's defense, so we perform inventories throughout the year to sustain that trustworthiness."

In addition to the semi-annual 100 percent inventories like the unit just completed, they perform 10 percent inventories monthly, quarterly custody account inventories, monthly stockpile inventories and daily inventory on all operational structures.

"The 3rd MUNS maintains 37 custody or time share accounts for units on JBER," said Air Force Master Sgt Scott Arnold, 3rd MUNS munitions accountable systems officer. "That includes the 673d Air Base Wing's Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Security Forces, the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Honor Guard, as well as the 3rd Wing's 90th and 525th fighter squadrons."

More than 50 3rd MUNS Airmen broken into eight teams to inspect 1,460 line items during the inventory. The inspected munitions have a total value in excess of $124 million and required nearly 24 hours of total time to physically verify, Arnold said.

"These types of events provide an opportunity for our Airmen to witness how their efforts affect readiness first hand," Arnold said. "This way they are prepared and motivated to meet mission requirements downrange. This inventory ensures what is on the computer matches what is in the storage units. For our unit, this is an everyday thing. We have 'cradle to grave' responsibility for all of our munitions."

The inventory provides the unit with an accurate, verified picture of what is actually available compared to the digital manifests. The 3rd MUNS' responsibility expands when units that use munitions visit JBER.

"We ensure that incoming units have (the munitions) they need to train their combat capabilities and maintain their pilot's proficiency" Arnold said. "There are two ways we support external units with this, either they can provide us their munitions needs before they get here and we can do a transfer allocation when they arrive or they can bring the necessary munitions with them and we can inspect them upon arrival."

The squadron looks at the support they provide other units, as well as the persistent inventories throughout the year as opportunities to prove their excellence.

"Our benefit (from this inventory) is twofold," Williams said. "One, we get to ensure we are ready for the wartime mission during deployments, but also we get to show how reliable we are in the Air Force's chain of events to get from development to munitions on target. Our Airmen take pride in our role in this process and inventories like this one give us a chance to display that."

Williams said the 3rd MUNS' pride in that role is something they continually verify, both on and off schedule to make sure they are ready at a moments' notice.

"By performing our job correctly we maintain reliable, dependable munitions counts for our customers. We ensure these reports by doing inventories on all of our munitions to maintain that accountability," he said. "We provide our base leadership with a peace of mind that, at any time, we can take the fight to the enemy."

Being prepared to execute the mission is a part of readiness, Williams said. It all comes down to communicating capabilities and meeting those obligations.

"When you go to the bank, you expect them to have the amount of money on your statement, because that is what you entrusted them with," he said. "Every time we 'cash checks' for our customers it is a testimony to our unit's trustworthiness, we take pride in that."