Mission Monday: Expeditionary and Readiness Training

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  • AFIMSC Public Affairs

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – It’s Mission Monday. Meet David Clifford, lead analyst for expeditionary and readiness training in AFIMSC’s Expeditionary Support and Training Division.

Clifford and his teammate, Robert Carrillo, integrate and represent both the AFIMSC enterprise and installation and mission support functional families when it comes to expeditionary and readiness training to prepare for the next fight.

“In addition, we manage centralized travel funds for Airmen to attend several formal functional expeditionary and readiness courses like Silver Flag,” he said. “Finally, I am the action officer for AFIMSC’s Regional Training Site initiative to robust existing locations and create new ones for our Airmen to receive realistic, austere condition training on equipment they don’t have at their home stations but will see when deployed.”

We asked Clifford to tell us a little more about himself and the work that he does for AFIMSC and the Department of the Air Force.

What do you love about your job?
Being able to educate and help our Airmen at the unit level find the answers they need to get their daily jobs done and prepare them for the next fight.

When it comes to your job, what keeps you motivated?
Not only my customers, but also the tremendous collaboration and support I receive from some many across the AFIMSC enterprise … from engineers in the 801st RED HORSE Training Squadron and Air Force Civil Engineer Center, services noncommissioned and senior noncommissioned officers in the Air Force Services Center and huge shout out to the Defenders at the Air Force Security Center who have been a tremendous help with Regional Training Sites.

Why are you and your team important to the Air Force and Space Force enterprise and your customers?
Rob and I are blessed to work so many broad initiatives with expeditionary/readiness training and RTS. We’re exposed to and have knowledge on not only training, but Air Force Force Generation, Agile Combat Employment, multi-capable Airmen, the new Ready Airmen Training, etc.  Plus, as I mentioned earlier, we manage the centralized travel funding for civil engineers, force support, comptrollers, contracting and ground transportation Airmen to formal functional readiness training courses.

Describe a projector event you and your team worked on recently that gave you a great sense of accomplishment:
It must be the RTS initiative. Since becoming the action officer for AFIMSC’s RTS initiative nine months ago, it has been a lot of hard work ... probably the most difficult project I have ever worked in 33 years military and civilian service. But I feel we are at a turning point and our most recent working group has laid the foundation for program success this year.

How does what you do support AFIMSC’s strategic priorities?
Between expeditionary and readiness training, and regional training sites, there is a linkage to all AFIMSC strategic priorities, but the focus is on increase lethality and readiness, strengthening our Airmen and Guardians, and certainly amplifying a warfighter culture.

Is there anything else you’d like to add which might help people understand the importance of what you do for the Department of the Air Force?
No, but what I ask of everyone reading this anywhere in the Air Force, Rob and I are here for you.  Please send us an email on anything you may need and we will find the answer for you or point you in the right direction. I know what it is like to be a unit deployment manager at the squadron level and not having the information you need, so Rob and I want to help!