Mission Monday: AFIMSC Operations Center

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  • AFIMSC Public Affairs

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – It’s Mission Monday! Meet Alexander “Arch” Archibald, current operations planning manager and Security Forces representative for the Operations Center at Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center headquarters.

Arch and the A33O team plan, assess and execute operations and provide information to the commander and leadership team during normal operations, crisis and contingencies. He also supports resourcing and manages the directorate’s finances for travel, supply purchases and contracts. 

“Our team serves as the front door to AFIMSC,” Arch said. “We provide continuity of knowledge on I&MS capability across the formation and help ensure seamless continuity of operations by connecting warfighter customers with the appropriate AFIMSC extended family member.” 

We asked the San Antonio native to tell us more about himself and the work he does for DAF. 

What do you love about your job?
Being blessed to work alongside an awesome team, plus daily interactions with headquarters/ directorates, detachments, and primary subordinate units, and learning about other functional areas. I love knowing that I’m making a difference in our Air Force and improving the lives of our enterprise-wide team members. I was part of the original AFIMSC/IZP team in 2015, so I like to think I was a part of what makes the team so great. I’ve always felt there was true goodness in the AFIMSC operational intent to allocate limited resources where most needed and could make the most mission impact, so I’ve remained proud to be a small part of our tremendous successes over the years.

Briefly tell us why you joined the Air Force or, if a civilian employee, civil service?
I was born into a military family, so it was the only reality I’ve ever known. I never thought of the Air Force as just a job, but a 24-hour profession, lifestyle and family business. I left home 20 days after high school graduation in 1992 for the U.S. Air Force Academy and I’ve been proudly serving since, either in active duty, contractor or civilian status.

When it comes to your job, what keeps you motivated?
My family, esprit-de-corps of co-workers, plus fulfillment in providing start-to-finish assistance for support requests from the field.

Why do you serve and what keeps you serving?
There’s a reason why I was brought into this world, even if there are many days that leave me scratching my head as to how I fit into God’s master plan or what my role is. I figure my part is to put forth my best effort every day, living, giving, sometimes sacrificing and believing in something much bigger than just myself. 

Describe a project or event you and your team worked on recently that gave you a great sense of accomplishment:
AFIMSC’s recently created Task Force Agile Mission Support – TFAMS - team is a noteworthy highlight of a specific active project that continues to get better and more mission capable with each passing day. It’s an evolution of its predecessor smaller-in-charter Initial Response Team that was stood up in 2020 to assist in the recovery of installations affected by natural or manmade disasters. TFAMS is a standing team of pre-identified emergency responders that integrates the full spectrum of AFIMSC I&MS capabilities that is trained and has rehearsed contingency plans for forward movement to provide AFIMSC boots-on-the-ground resourcing support during recovery phases of an operation. 

How does what you do support AFIMSC’s strategic priorities?
A33O directly impacts multiple areas of our strategic priorities. We increase lethality and readiness by integrating air base command and control. We pursue organizational excellence by increasing organizational effectiveness, collaboration and integration. We amplify warfighter culture by continually developing a support staff that is informed and mission connected. 

Complete this sentence … I power the world’s greatest Air Force by …
Being all in, giving 100% every day and trying to find a way to overcome the roadblock at-hand and work together toward developing a ‘yes’ solution.