The 46th Operations Support Squadron at Eglin AFB, Fla., recently won the 2005 Complex of the Year award—which honors one of the most complex airspace and airfield arrangements in the Air Force. The facility has nearly five million square yards of pavement that is used by six wings, five commands, the Army, the Navy, and six civilian airlines. Lt. Col. Mike Penland, the 46th OSS commander, calls the operation “virtually a symphony of activity that must be safely orchestrated to ensure all customers can operate safely in and out of [the area] while balancing mission requirements for test, training, real world operations, and civilian air traffic.”
The program executive officers for some of the Air Force’s largest acquisition management organizations are struggling to deal with an exodus of senior talent and experienced civilian staff, three of them told an industry conference.
