TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. - The Army's top Soldier in the Arkansas National Guard made a visit to Tinker AFB Jan. 16 to interface with officials at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center and learn about the Voluntary Protection Program and how it was implemented here.
John Over, the OC-ALC executive director, outlined the safety program with Maj. Gen. William D. Wofford, Arkansas National Guard Adjutant General, along with other high-ranking Arkansas Guard officials, safety, aviation and facility managers.
The Voluntary Protection Program, or VPP, encourages cooperative workplace relationships between employees and management to promote safety. Within the program, anyone can point out safety hazards or unsafe practices and working groups come up with solutions to those problems.
According to Maj. Keith Moore, the public affairs officer for the Arkansas National Guard, the visit was a great success.
"In the aircraft, on the way back, everyone had positive comments about the facilities and military, civilians, and union folks who are integrating VPP across the board at Tinker AFB," he said.
The Guard's interest in VPP began with the opening of a new Army Aviation Support Facility at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Ark. The facility has been open for more than a year. It is a large maintenance building for the Blackhawk helicopter and can accommodate 21 aircraft.
Guard officials say they hope to influence the culture of the new facility.
"We are in the process of upgrading a lot of our programs," Major Moore said. "The best time to do that is as we're (settling in) to our new facility."
Guard officials said they knew they wanted to implement VPP, but they did not want to "re-invent the wheel" or make the same mistakes that others had made while implementing their programs.
"We went out and interviewed other National Guard units and time and again it came back that Tinker AFB was doing exceptionally well with the program," Major Moore said. "So, we decided to make a visit."
The team learned valuable lessons.
"They shared their timeline with us as well as their obstacles," the major said. "This is not an overnight process for full implementation, but there are great benefits. This has to be a command program, but it is so important to have buy-in from the union, the employee groups and the working groups."