LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- James Brown, 47th Logistics Readiness Flight installation deployment officer, was chosen by wing leadership to be the “XLer” of the week, for the week of August 13, 2018, at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.
The “XLer” award, presented by Col. Charlie Velino, 47th Flying Training Wing commander, is given to those who consistently make outstanding contributions to their unit and the Laughlin mission.
As the installation deployment officer, Brown is largely responsible for fulfilling the wing’s number-two mission priority: deploy mission-ready warriors. Brown organized the training and equipment of 34 deployments to eight different locations.
“[When] we are sending Team XL members down range during our call-up periods, it's important that we provide Team XL's best trained/qualified to support the combatant commanders,” he said.
Brown was also able to cut the time it takes deployers to compete the deployment readiness checklist by 30 percent. He led the conversation on electronic deployment readiness checklists, or e-DRC, ensuring 100-percent delpoyer reliability.
“The e-DRC has been in the works for a couple of years now,” Brown said. “It replaces an actual form that the unit deployment manager would sit down with members in the unit to review readiness requirements, such as ID card currency, dog tags, annual training requirements, currency of member's wills and virtual record of emergency data (vRED). These are important items to keep up to date as some taskings we receive can require us to have the member wheels up in hours instead of a4 month build-up to actual departure.”
He led the charge for addressing the Secretary of Defense’s full spectrum readiness initiative, resetting 550 training cycles, keeping the wing postured and ready to deploy.
“The Secretary of Defense’s initiative puts our force at a different level for readiness posturing,” he said. “Instead of ‘just-in-time’ training when tasked, we are transforming our practices to prepare the warfighters with an ‘always ready and able to do the fight tonight’ skillset. This allows us to continue to be the world's best Air Force.”
To his unit, he is a “readiness guru,” keeping the entire wing at 100-percent readiness accuracy. One of the main missions of Laughlin Air Force Base is to deploy mission ready warriors, and Brown make sure that it’s carried out every day.
For his contributions and efforts in keeping Laughlin in the fight, Brown was awarded the “XLer of the week.”