BEAR to BOB validation underway

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Terri Barriere
  • 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (ACCNS) --  More than 20 experts from the Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources community descended upon Holloman Aug. 19 for the Air Combat Command's validation of Holloman's new unit type code prototypes.

During the validation, which began at the 49th Materiel Maintenance Group here recently, members of the BEAR community from Pacific Air Forces and United States Air Forces in Europe, alongside a team from ACC, will review and approve the new UTC's.

After approval has been granted, the prototype will be used as the new BEAR standard throughout the Air Force.

Capt. Sisto Ortiz, Materiel Management Flight commander, said the validation gives members of the BEAR community a chance to see and touch the new prototype with their own eyes prior to it becoming the standard.

The validation comes on the heels of months of work to transition from BEAR to the BEAR order of Battle. The first prototype for BOB was built in May 2007 and 49th MMG personnel have been working toward that goal ever since.

"We had to build the UTC's, validate paperwork and validate allowance standards," said Tech. Sgt. Carlton Francis, BEAR team chief. "We had to build the UTC's up from scratch to include physically going to find the parts and physically packing them into containers. A lot of man hours went into weighing, building, taking inventory and validating paperwork. It was a very tedious job."

According to Master Sgt. Nathan Daly, the BEAR non-commissioned officer in charge, the new BOB approach calls for personnel to dismantle the 42 large UTC's into two, 250 smaller modular ones, thus allowing them to be ordered as needed, on top of making them easier to deploy.

"BEAR was a one size fits all approach requiring massive amounts of airlift - where BOB is an ala carte' approach configured for 30 percent airlift and 70 percent surface lift," said.

Sergeant Daly said the increased use of ground transportation required for BOB will also be more cost effective and cause less damage to shipments.

As the mission of BEAR Base is to deliver deployable assets anywhere in the world, the 49th MMG accomplishes this mission by sending large, all-inclusive packaged capabilities, known as UTC's, to deployed locations; however, according to Master Sgt. Anthony Flores, 49th Materiel Maintenance Support Squadron, this method did not align very well with the Air Expeditionary Force Concept.

For the Airmen working on this project however, transitioning from BEAR to BOB proves to be more than just a hard day's work.

"Being able to see the end product is very fulfilling," said Sergeant Francis. "Once it is approved and accepted by the BEAR community - that will be the most rewarding. It's a good feeling knowing your working on something that will be implemented Air Force-wide, especially for the younger Airman.

Captain Ortiz said they will continue to work toward the future and get the wing ready for where BOB is headed.