Unit Compliance Inspection Wrap-Up

  • Published
  • By Capt. Kevin Heineman
  • 185ARW/PA
Sioux City, Iowa --  Over the past year, Airmen of the185th Air Refueling Wing, Sioux City, Iowa spent countless hours accomplishing reams paperwork, reviewing checklists, and ensuring unit members performed and documented tasks according to guidelines of Air Force Instructions. The months of preparation, attention to detail, and hard work paid off with the 185th receiving an overall rating of excellent on its most recent Unit Compliance Inspection (UCI) in September.

"Superb effort all the way around by this wing," said Col. Mark Schmitz, Air Mobility Command (AMC) headquarters Inspector General (IG) team chief. "It is one of the best efforts we have seen on an Air National Guard UCI in several years."

The IG's Office sent a team of approximately 70 inspectors from AMC, headquarters in Scott AFB, Illinois, to execute the inspection. Their task was to evaluate the ability of the 185th to follow the functional checklists put in place by the Air Force and Air National Guard.

Schmitz praised the senior NCOs' of the 185th whom he said are the key to the success of each unit. "What was particularly evident to me was the performance by your enlisted personnel and senior NCOs'," said Schmitz. "You don't get these types of results by having weak senior enlisted leadership. And the strong performance put forward by our younger enlisted groups is evidenced by all the recognition they received here today."

The UCI also evaluated the Wing's ability to assess it's adherence to Air Force and Air Mobility Command's policies and directives during day to day operations. Five ratings were possible: (in order from bad to good) unsatisfactory, marginal, satisfactory, excellent, and outstanding.

"One of my jobs back at Headquarters is that I capture, find, and analyze trends in the inspection world," said Schmitz. "[The 185th has previously received] ORI - excellent, NORI - excellent, UCI - excellent. I think I have spotted a trend here at the 185th ... a trend of excellence."

The UCI came on the heels of the first ever Iowa Air National Guard activation by both State and Federal authorities. In June, 500 Guard members from the 185th were called up to duty to provide support for evacuated and displaced Iowan residents in several eastern cities and towns ravaged by flooding rivers.

"Compliance equates to readiness. The more compliant you are the stronger the wing is and the better you will be ready for the challenges that lie ahead. Just as evidenced by what happened in Eastern Iowa recently, it is not a matter of if the leaders will call, but when the leaders will call," said Schmitz. "And this wing has demonstrated that it is ready to meet the challenges when your leaders call."

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