CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
There's a popular show called "Mythbusters" which takes a concept and either proves it to be true or it "busts" the myth. A good example is when they disproved the myth of quicksand sucking you under to your death. They determined quicksand is denser than water, with greater buoyancy; so while you may get stuck, it won't drag you under.
So what does this have to do with the operational readiness inspection? Well, there are a lot of statements out there on how an ORI is conducted, who or what will have an impact and some are true and others are false. What I'd like to do is take some of these beliefs and either prove them correct or bust the myth.
"I'm not an ORI player since I'm not deploying or helping deployers get out of town." -- MYTH
Every person at Charleston is an ORI player, whether active duty, reserve, civilian, dependent or retiree. If you work on Charleston AFB and aren't deploying, I can guarantee you'll be helping someone who is deploying by picking up extra duties. Dependents and retirees will also feel the impact of the ORI and may have a bearing on its success. When another wing had their ORI, they had three safety violations and all occurred on base prior to deployment. The violations were for people using cell phones while driving and for seat belts not being worn. The violators were two dependents and one retiree. The inspector general won't care if you wear a uniform, used to wear one, are married to someone who wears one or work with someone who wears one. Team Charleston is getting the inspection and when you come through the gate, you are part of the team.
"I need to study my Airman's Manual, know the basics and be able to find information when asked." -- FACT
Everyone should know the basics contained in the Airman's Manual, because it is there to help each of us. With an ORI coming up, the knowledge inside the manual becomes even more important. We need to know this information in order to ace the inspection and the evaluators will be asking us questions out of the Airman's Manual. While we can look them up, we need to know where to look and have a basic understanding of it as well. This is no different then when you are evaluating someone to determine if they have learned a new task. If the person has to look everything up, your level of confidence in them drops off and you tend to ask more questions. If they had nailed it off the bat, you tend to back off because they have demonstrated their knowledge.
"My performance won't make a difference on whether we succeed or not during the ORI." -- MYTH
Our ORI team is much like our mighty C-17 in flight. Yes, we can fly with a problem on the airplane, even with an engine shut down. Can we complete the mission ... maybe, depending upon a lot of factors that may be out of our control. Can we fly as high or as fast on three engines then we can with all four? No we can't. Just as losing an engine degrades a C-17's ability to complete the mission, so does the Airman, regardless of rank, who doesn't take their job seriously or do his or her best. Will we succeed if someone doesn't give 100 percent of their effort ... maybe, maybe not. It'll depend upon a lot of factors that will be out of our control. Why take that chance and be that key that failed.
We are the best and let's show the IG how well we do our jobs. Remember, we are Team Charleston!