Army BOSS program with an Airman twist

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class DeAndre Curtiss
  • 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
WHITE SAND MISSILE RANGE, N.M. --  To be the president of any organization is an accomplishment in itself, but to be the first Air Force president in a predominantly Army program is a truly amazing feat. 

Airman 1st Class Jakenyon Ford, 49th Operations Support Squadron, has been president of White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) Army Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers (BOSS) program for almost five months, and is the first and only U.S Air Force member to hold the position. 

Established in 1989, The U.S Army Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers (BOSS) program was created to better the lives of everyone from single Soldiers to Department of Defense civilians. Since then, the BOSS program has expanded to 82 programs across the United States, Europe, Korea the Pacific Region and now thanks to WSMR it is incorporating other branches of service. 

All Army installations have a formal BOSS program, which is headed by three key personnel, known as the BOSS triad. The triad consists of the BOSS president, morale welfare and recreation (MWR) advisor, and the garrison command sergeant major. 

The president ensures records of all service members' issues are maintained, tracked and reported. Also they must plan, preside over and facilitate installation-level boss meetings. Although the tasks are complex, the BOSS program is familiar to Airman Ford.
"Being that I grew up with both of my parents in the Army, I grew up around BOSS," he said. 

Airman Ford arrived at WSMR in August of 2007, training to become an air traffic controller for the Radar Approach Control Facility for the 49 OSS and immediately became involved with the program. 

"I volunteered to take the position as the secretary at first, but then some of the servicemembers that are also in the BOSS program suggested I become president," Airman Ford said. 

Though Airman Ford may not have been looking to lead at first, he has taken the initiative and gotten many things done for the community at WSMR, and will be traveling to Washington D.C. later this summer in support of the BOSS program. 

Airman Ford's hard work has been reflected in the success of the BOSS program at WSMR and acknowledged by his peers and supervisors. 

"Airman Ford is doing an outstanding job representing the Air Force at WSMR as the president of the Army's BOSS program. As far as I know, he is the first Airman to ever hold this position in what is traditionally an Army only program," said Senior Master Sgt. John L. Sawyer, chief controller, White Sands Missile Radar Facility. 

Usually Soldiers are the core of the program but WSMR includes members from the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force who all participate. This mixture in services results in a change in the meaning of the BOSS program. 

"Here at WSMR we have turned our program into all military branches, we have servicemembers from the U.S. Navy, Army and Air Force all in one program which forms B-O-S-S: Better Opportunities for Single Servicemembers," said Airman Ford. 

BOSS's three core components, Well-Being, recreation and leisure and community service, help steer the programs overall direction and gives single Soldiers opportunity and the necessary resources to address certain conditions and recommend changes to the chain of command that will improve the quality of life for all single Soldiers. 

Even though BOSS is mostly an Army program that is only available to service members on Army installations Airman Ford and his fellow members of the WSMR BOSS program show that core components are universal to all the sister services. The program, which was created to help make the lives of single Soldiers better, is now helping all single servicemembers.