KLEINE BROGEL AIR BASE, Belgium -- The military is a demanding job requiring people to move frequently, forcing them to adapt to a new environment quickly so that there are no short falls in mission capability. This is difficult even when filling an existing position, but occasionally new positions are created to serve the changing needs of the military, and the individuals filling those new requirements have to develop their own procedures.
This was the case for Staff Sgt. Dylan Ryndak, 701st Munitions Support Squadron maintenance scheduler, who is now responsible for all the maintenance scheduling requirements for a geographically separated unit in Belgium.
“Schedulers schedule anything that has maintenance on it,” said Ryndak. “It’s kind of like a car, every six months or every three months you want to get your oil changed. It’s essentially the same thing, if we have stuff that needs an inspection every three months, it’s my job to coordinate with all the appropriate agencies and to track all of that.”
There are four GSUs attached to the 52nd Fighter Wing that host Munitions Support Squadrons, and Ryndak’s location is the first to get a scheduler.
Once all the schedulers are in place, they will be responsible for writing the Air Force Instructions dictating how their job should be done so that future people have a frame of reference.
“Because I’m the first in my position, my job is to also realize what we’re missing here and what other bases are doing right,” said Ryndak. “So I have to look at the AFIs for aircraft, and see what their practices are because they’ve always had scheduling positions. I have to see what they are doing in the aircraft world that we’re not doing here that might help, and then we try to implement it. So we have to rewrite the AFI to make it so people know what they’re doing.”
According to Master Sgt. Heath York, 701st MUNSS maintenance flight chief, changes to manpower require extensive evaluation at the direction of top military officials.
“[Sergeant Ryndak’s] position is the culmination of a force improvement program that was initiated by the Secretary of the Air Force along with the [United States Air Forces in Europe] commander in early 2015,” said York. “I was on the staff at the time at USAFE, and we went out to all the bases that fund this mission, and we were tasked to find out what the unit needs to make the mission successful.”
The GSU schedulers are among several positions that required additional funding to have the manpower required to make the mission successful.
“The culmination of that [the force improvement program] was roughly $600 million to the enterprise, which over time got these positions funded, and all that does is strengthen the force and the mission,” said York.
The schedulers assigned have to pass a rigorous selection process. When referencing this process Ryndak noted that “It’s all about trust here.”
According to Ryndak, all four GSUs will have schedulers assigned by the end of 2021. From there, they can continue to build on the work that Ryndak has started to make sure that a precedent is set making it easier for future schedulers to succeed in this difficult, remote environment.