Incirlik safety members win USAFE awards

  • Published
  • By Lori Burling Alves
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Two members of Incirlik Air Base's safety team are competing for Air Force-wide awards for their efforts in securing the safety of military weapons. Tech. Sgt. Steven Williams recently won the yearly U.S. Air Forces in Europe Explosive Safety Achievement Award, while Master Sgt. Travis Wetzler won the USAFE Surety Safety Achievement Award. Both awards spanned the two stellar NCOs accomplishments from October 2005 to September 2006.

"Basically it's our job to make sure that weapons are stored and moved correctly," said Sergeant Williams. "A lot of it deals with making sure weapons are placed at a safe distance from people and also other weapons. We have to insure that no one would be injured or killed if something were to happen."

Sergeant Williams deals with conventional explosives -- anything from a hand grenade to a larger bomb.

"Basically anything that goes boom," he said.

Sergeant Williams, who only has 23 days left of his tour at Incirlik, has been busy while in Turkey. He has overseen modifications to weapon storage areas at Incirlik and deployed to Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan and Kandahar A.B., Afghanistan, to set up safety programs down range.

"I think both of those things were key in winning the award," Sergeant Williams said.
Sergeant Wetzler is the weapons safety manager here. He said there are three key points to a weapons mission -- safety, security and reliability.

"I'm involved in all three aspects," said Sergeant Wetzler. "Ensuring weapons safety is not just a one-man show. It's a team effort. We're involved from the wing commander all the way down to the Airmen in nearly every field -- from security forces to the command post. Within the last year we've had good leaders that have supported our ideas to enhance safety."

While Sergeant Wetzler insists it is a team effort, he was instrumental in an initiative that led to a change in a USAFE safety policy within the last year. And under his management, Sergeant Wetzler's safety team also received zero findings during a May 2006 Surety Staff Assistance Visit.

Both sergeants Williams and Wetzler also credit marks received during the recent Surety Inspection here. The inspectors rated the weapons safety team as excellent.

Sergeants Williams and Wetzler are now being evaluated for the same awards at the Air Force level, which will be announced after the first of the new year.

"It's huge. It's pretty much a once in a career type of award," said Sergeant Travis Wetzler.