Hilltop Inspections

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The commander of Air Force Materiel Command returned recently from a trip to Iraq and other sites in the region with an amped-up sense of responsibility to deployed Airmen who depend on his command for the supplies, parts and maintenance to get their jobs done.

Gen. Donald Hoffman had a simple message for the AFMC work force, which he shared first with his senior staff.

Air Force officials begin new ISR weapon system review

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. -- Air Force officials began a comprehensive review of the Distributed Common Ground System, commonly known as the Sentinel, and its periodic maintenance Feb. 22 through 26 here.

Sentinel Focus 10A is the second review for the DCGS, the Air Force's globally networked intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance weapon system.

Once again Team Hill prepares for another Operational Readiness Exercise or ORE as you will hear most folks call it. The ORE is an important step to ensure mission readiness and Hill's best tool to evaluate true mission capabilities. A lot of planning and coordination goes into OREs, and we need to do all we can to maximize what we get out of the exercise.

A few tips:

• Everyone should be familiar with AFI 90-201, Chapter 4.

The 75th Medical Group will open at 1 p.m. on March 22 to participate the ORE.

An additional system has been added to the tracking of government purchasing cards. All approving officials and supervisors will soon be required to track information through the Purchase Card Online System, or PCOLS. PCOLS is a Department of Defense-wide, DoD-operated electronic system that GPC officials will use to improve the management and accountability of their GPC Program organization. Once the system is up and running sometime before the end of March, any unit or branch not using the new system won't be able to use their GPC cards.

"This is an accountability issue.

OGDEN -- Tuesday night in Ogden, Air Force officials discussed what impacts Top of Utah residents might see if the F-35 Lightning II lands at Hill Air Force Base.

A team of Air Force representatives from Hill and from Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia set up shop at the Union Station on Jan. 19, distributing environmental information on the Air Force's next-generation fighter plane.

In October, the Air Force announced that Hill was one of six finalists to host at least one and possibly three active-duty squadrons of the F-35.