MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) -- Air Force Culture and Language Center offcials recently announced the application window dates for the Fall 2012 Language Enabled Airman Program selection board.
 
Applications for the Language Enabled Airman Program will be accepted July 2 through August 31, and a selection board will be held this fall. The AFCLC, which is part of Air University's Spaatz Center, aims to choose 200 new LEAP participants from cadet and active-duty officer and enlisted Airmen applicants.

All Air Force officer candidates with a commission date scheduled for the 2012-2013 academic year are eligible to apply. However, application eligibility for active-duty personnel is limited to certain career fields, based on current Air Force foreign language requirements, said Zachary Hickman, the AFCLC Language Branch chief. Enlisted Airmen who meet the minimum eligibility requirements in the following Air Force Specialty Codes can apply for the fall 2012 LEAP selection board: 1A2, 1A7, 1C1, 1C2, 1C7, 1P0, 1T0, 1T2, 1W0, 2A5, 2A6, 3D0, 3E2, 3E5, 3N0, 3S0, 4M0, 6C0 and 6F0. Commissioned active-duty Air Force officers from the following career fields are eligible to apply: 11F, 11G, 11M, 11S, 12F, 12M, 13A, 13B, 13S, 14N, 15W, 21A, 21R, 38F and 63A.

Throughout the career-long program, participants are provided structured language sustainment and enhancement opportunities to develop them as foreign language-enabled professionals and leaders. Participants will have opportunities to attain the highest sustainable foreign language proficiency through live, online classes and intensive training events. Ultimately, LEAP participants will be able to utilize their language skills within their career fields via language-related assignments and taskings, Hickman added.

"LEAP's end goal is to produce a language speaker who can perform their core job duties in their respective foreign language," said Jay Warwick, the director of the AFCLC. "Commanders have a need for cross-culturally competent Airmen -- individuals with language, cultural and regional abilities -- to help accomplish the Air Force mission. LEAP is one way we help provide that."

Application forms, instructions and complete eligibility requirements are available at www.culture.af.mil/leap. LEAP background information and frequently asked questions can also be found on the website. Please check the Frequently Asked Questions, and direct any additional questions not addressed on the FAQ to afclc.language@maxwell.af.mil. Deadline to submit application packets to the AFCLC is midnight Central Standard Time on Aug. 31.

(Courtesy of the Air Force Culture and Language Center)

On Sept. 18, 1976, a time capsule was lowered into the ground near the main gate of what was then McChord Air Force Base, now JBLM McChord Field, in honor of the 200th anniversary of United States independence and the 29th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force.

On June 21, 2012, 36 years later, a granite stone was placed and the capsule's location at Memorial Grove was rededicated after weather and age made the capsule's original plaque illegible.

The Air Force Sergeants Association Chapter 1461 donated the large granite stone. The chapter works in conjunction with the Memorial Grove Committee to maintain the three-acre grove area located at the corner of Col. Joe Jackson and Barnes boulevards.

"The day this was dedicated, there were 39 C-141's here, 18 C-130's, even a squadron of F-106A Green Dragons, and about 4,500 Airmen both active duty, Guard and Reserve," Col. Wyn Elder, 62nd Airlift Wing commander, said. "Now you look at McChord Field and there are 51 C-17's and about 4,500 Airmen still active duty, Guard and Reserve. So some things have changed, but in a lot of respects nothing has. It's still Airmen defending our country and our way of life. Thank you for redoing this. It's a wonderful testament to our Airmen past, present and future."

Elder along with Col. Bruce Bowers, commander of the 446th Airlift Wing, unveiled the new granite stone and then placed the 40th anniversary brick commemorating the anniversary of the establishment of Memorial Grove.

The capsule, which measures 17 by 30 inches, is scheduled to be opened in the year 2076. It contains paraphernalia from the base and air wing active at McChord in 1976, including flags, patches, newspapers, photos and a roster of personnel.

The Memorial Grove committee's mission is to preserve the past and enhance the future of the grove according to Senior Master Sgt. Ron Carghill, president of the committee.

Their future plans for Memorial Grove include adding a Medal of Honor recipients pavilion and discussions are ongoing to include an area to honor the Western Area Defense Sector. The committee will add four picnic tables and replace the sign marking the entrance to the grove this year as well.

Photo: Col. Bruce Bowers, 446th AW commander, left, and Col. Wyn Elder, 62nd AW commander, uncover the granite stone marking the location of a time capsule in Memorial Grove on McChord Field at JBLM, June 21. The granite stone, donated by the Air Force Sergeants Association Chapter 1461, replaced an illegible bronze plaque. Capt. Tawny Dotson/62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

Tucked away in a small, easily overlooked office space in the wing headquarters building, is a team of reservists who have only four primary responsibilities - responsibilities that in the end tell the president this wing is ready when called.

The 446th Airlift Wing Combat Readiness Office, headed by Lt. Col. David Jeske, is a new function to the wing, as it is for all wings in Air Force Reserve Command.

Authorized in November 2011, combat readiness offices across the command are designed to plan, prepare, execute and assess the wing's readiness program.

"Our new combat readiness (office) has added tremendous resources to this wing," Col. Bruce Bowers, 446th AW commander, said. "Since we lost our plans section years ago, functions supporting readiness devolved to various functional areas without a single contact point.

"While much of the work was still being accomplished," Bowers said, "those tasks competed with workloads already being levied. This office now allows us to focus on wing readiness from a unit perspective."

As an air reserve technician, Jeske is the only full-time staff in the office, with three traditional reservists assigned.

According to Jeske, the office's primary responsibilities can be broken down into four areas - preparing the wing for inspections, preparing and coordinating all exercises, managing the exercise evaluation team, and serving as advisors to the wing commander on the state of the wing's readiness.

"Whether it's the ORI (operational readiness inspection), HSI (health services inspection), or a MARE (major accident response exercise), we play a role in all of those", Jeske said. "Our office will be responsible for coordinating the wings participation in all those exercises."

And with the ORI just around the corner, Jeske has his hands full right from the get go. "So I was either really, really good with my timing, or I have the worst timing in the world," he said.

In order to understand the wing's readiness and what exercises are needed to prepare the 446th AW Reservists for executing the mission, a team of evaluators are needed.

"I will be the chief of the EET, the wing's exercise evaluation team," Jeske said. "All of the other members of the office will be very strong members of the EET; each representing a very necessary and important facet of the EET."

Not only will the combat readiness office house records of the training for EET members, its personnel must accomplish their own training.

"Our office members have to complete all that training as well, and then some," Jeske said. "We looked the other day and there are 13 training courses required just for members of the combat readiness office. That's why it's very important who we select to be in the combat readiness office. Training from Air Force, AFRC, AMC (Air Mobility Command), Homeland Defense, and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). It has to do with everything from how to run an exercise, to emergency management, to how an EOC (emergency operations center) is set up. It really covers the gamut of everything you need to know to lead an EET in an exercise evaluation."

All the combat readiness office does rolls into their fourth responsibility, serving as advisors to the wing commander.

"That's probably the most complicated of the four," Jeske said. "Because everyone has a different idea of what readiness means. And there doesn't seem to be a single, specific definition of readiness. If (Colonel Bowers) gets a phone call tomorrow saying ‘We need 1,000 people to deploy to base X somewhere, is the 446th ready to go?' he'll be able to answer that immediately. To me that is readiness. My challenge is to give Col. Bowers the tools to give an answer that is ‘Yes, the 446th is ready to go right now.'"

Jeske was a key proponent for establishing combat readiness offices. As the executive officer for Brig. Gen. Mark Kyle, 4th Air Force commander, March Air Reserve Base, Calif., Jeske primarily focused on readiness for more than five years.

"Having Lt. Col. David Jeske join our 446th AW team is a coup," Bowers said. He brings a wealth of experience and background that will not only make the 446 AW better, but it will improve team Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Jeske may have been influenced to come here from California because his daughter attends the University of Oregon. But it was the wing's reputation that sealed the deal.

"In some ways, I kind of feel like the folks of the 446th don't know how good they have it," Jeske said. "Having come from a different perspective, particularly from the (Numbered Air Force) where I saw all the wings, I kind of knew how well the folks in the 446th have it."

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The U.S. Air Force Band of the Golden West's 40-member concert band is scheduled to present a free patriotic concert series around the Puget Sound area starting July 1.

Below is the schedule of performances:

July 1: Wings and Wheels Freedom Fair at the Tacoma Narrows Airport in Tacoma, Wash., from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

July 2: Go Fourth Festival at Lake Sacajawea Park in Longview, Wash., starting at 7 p.m.

July 3: Performance at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Wash., starting at 7 p.m.

Although the performance at Benaroya Hall concert is free and open to the public, tickets are required. To reserve tickets, contact the ticket office located at 3rd Avenue and Union Street in Seattle. The ticket office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. If you are unable to visit the ticket office, you can request tickets by mail. For mail-in requests, send a self-addressed envelope to Seattle Symphony Tickets, P.O. Box 2108, Seattle, Wash., 98111, and denote the number of tickets requested. There is a limit of four tickets per order.

July 4: Kent's 4th of July Splash at Lake Meridian Park in Kent, Wash., starting at 8:30 p.m.

The ensemble will be performing a series of patriotic pieces including, "Yankee Doodle" and "American Salute" by Morton Gould, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as arranged by Sammy Nestico, and "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

From Travis Air Force Base, Calif., the Band of the Golden West is a select group of professional Airmen-musicians who support the global Air Force mission by providing musical products and services for official military, recruiting, and community relations events, and by fostering America's rich national heritage. The Band of the Golden West Concert Band is the largest ensemble within the organization.

Touring the western states of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Nevada, the Concert Band performs a wide variety of music from standard concert band literature and military marches to jazz and pop arrangements, Broadway standards and patriotic music complete with instrumental soloists and featured vocalists.

The Air Force Band of the Golden West has performed for thousands of listeners in live concert appearances and for millions worldwide via its numerous recordings and television and radio broadcasts. Throughout its history, the concert band has collaborated with some of America's leading band conductors.

For more information on these performances, call (707) 424-2263 or visit www.bandofthegoldenwest.af.mil.

Air Force officials selected 8,518 of 37,402 eligible staff sergeants for promotion to technical sergeant for a selection rate of 22.77 percent.

The average score for those selected was 321.94, with an average time in grade of 5.39 years and time in service of 10.58 years, respectively. Weighted factor averages included the following: 132.69 for enlisted performance reports, 5.59 for decorations, 75.37 for the promotion fitness exam and 55.39 for the specialty knowledge test.

The technical sergeant promotion list will be released publicly June 21 at 8 a.m. Central Daylight Time at www.afpc.af.mil and https://mypers.af.mil. Airmen will be able to access their score notices on the virtual MPF and the AF Portal.

Those selected for technical sergeant will be promoted beginning in August according to their promotion sequence number. As a reminder, the selections are tentative until the data verification process is complete, which is no later than 10 days after the promotion release date. Personnel officials will notify Airmen, via military personnel sections, if their selection is in question.

For more information on promotions or any other personnel related issue, visit the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil.

(Air Force Personnel, Service and Manpower Public Affairs)

Fourteen lieutenant colonels and 1,269 majors were selected for promotion to colonel and lieutenant colonel during the 2012A line of the Air Force and LAF-judge advocate central selection boards, Air Force Personnel Center officials announced.

To see the entire promotion list, go to http://www.afpc.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120614-132.pdf.

The boards considered 124 lieutenant colonels and 6,639 majors for promotion. Selection statistics include the following:

To Colonel
- In-the-promotion zone for LAF-J: 13 selected from 23 considered for 56.5 percent select rate
- Below-the-promotion zone for LAF-J: 1 selected from 66 considered for 1.5 percent select rate

To Lieutenant Colonel:
- In-the-promotion zone for LAF: 1,096 selected from 1,453 considered for 75.4 percent select rate
- Above-the-promotion zone for LAF: 17 selected from 1,405 considered for 1.2 percent select rate
- Below-the-promotion zone for LAF: - 123 selected from 3604 considered for 3.4 percent select rate
- In-the-promotion zone for LAF-J: 30 selected from 38 considered for 78.9 percent select rate
- Above-the-promotion zone for LAF-J: 2 selected from 31considered for 6.5 percent select rate
- Above-the-promotion zone for LAF-J: 1 selected from 108 considered for .9 percent select rate

For more information about promotion opportunities and other personnel issues, go to the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil.

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill.  -- Air Mobility Command released the results of its investigation into the Jan. 23, 2012, mishap involving a C-17A Globemaster III that landed at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan.

The Accident Investigation Board, convened by AMC, found that the cause of the mishap was the pilot and co-pilot failed to identify that the landing distance required to safely stop the aircraft exceeded the runway length. Additionally, the AIB president found that the failure to assess runway conditions for fixed wing operations at FOB Shank substantially contributed to the mishap.

The aircraft landed on a runway at FOB Shank, where the C-17A was unable to stop, departed the prepared runway surface, struck an embankment, and came to rest approximately 700 feet from the end of the runway. The aircraft sustained damage to the landing gear, cargo floor, undercarriage, antennas, and main structural components. There were no passengers, fatalities, significant injuries, or damage to civilian or other military property. The estimated cost to repair the C-17A is $69.4 million.

The mishap occurred as the C-17A was landing at FOB Shank during a combat airlift mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Editor's note: The home station of the C-17 was not identified in this story.

Air Force Reserve officials are working to change policy to allow reservists who earn days of leave to carry those days over from year to year.

New laws and Department of Defense instructions permit reservists to carry over the leave days. However, policy and procedures have not caught up with the new authority.

"This is a tremendous benefit to our Airmen, who historically were forced to immediately use, sell or lose their leave," said Rickey Harrington, the deputy chief of the force support division in the Office of Air Force Reserve at the Pentagon. "The new authority provides reservists more flexibility on how they use leave earned during active-duty activations and mobilizations of 30 or more days."

For each month served on active duty, reservists and active-duty service members earn 2.5 days of leave per month, equaling 30 days of leave per year. However, active-duty service members are also allowed to carry up to 60 days on the books as they cross the "use or lose" deadline on Oct. 1 each year. In addition, they can sell up to 60 days of leave during an entire career.

"While the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Air Force have moved out on putting this in the appropriate leave regulations, Air Force Reserve policy makers have yet to implement the authority because there are significant issues that need to be addressed," said Col. Nancy Zbyszinski, the director of personnel in the Office of Air Force Reserve.

One key issue is tracking the leave balance that reservists will carry forward each year. The Defense Finance and Accounting Services, based in Indianapolis, is not set up to account for reservists' leave beyond a single year.

According to financial managers at Headquarters Air Force, the leave software automatically pays out to reservists if the leave is on record one year after the end-of-tour date.

DFAS is working to change the system and to prevent this automatic pay out, according to Lt. Col. C.J. Miller, the deputy chief of the force sustainment and requirements branch in the Office of Air Force Reserve.

"We are working the last of the policy implementation issues, and once DFAS finalizes their system changes, we'll push this out to the field," Zbyszinski said.

Following a full review of the permanent change of station orders process, Air Force Personnel Center officials have implemented a new policy that will allow members more time to schedule move-related appointments, said Dave Faris, the AFPC PCS budget/assignment analysis section deputy chief.

Defense funding rules require that permanent change of station obligations be charged against the fiscal year in which the orders are published. To ensure the Air Force met that expectation, orders previously were published no later than 60 days before departure from the current station and no earlier than 90 days before the member's reporting date.

"After a review of numerous requests for exception to policy and requests from transportation authorities for more time to process household goods pickups, we analyzed the process and made some changes," Faris said.

In part, those changes are possible because of AFPC's role in processing and authenticating orders.

"The Total Force Service Center has assumed orders authentication responsibilities, and the centralized process is faster and more efficient," Faris explained. "Now, orders can be prepared 120 days before the member's scheduled departure date."

For members scheduled for lengthy training or leave en route to their new duty station, that change is expected to make all the difference, Faris said.

This should significantly reduce policy exception requests for early PCS orders. According to Faris, the policy change will help eliminate challenges, but if it does not meet a member's needs, he or she can still request an exception to policy.

For more information about permanent change of station moves and other personnel issues, visit the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil.