The misadventures of Airman Snuffy McDufflebag: Attention to detail

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson
  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - --  Ah! A new year! 2012 to be exact, the end of all existence on December 23 if you are a believer of the Mayan calendar. By the way, I'll take any valuables or money you have in your account since you won't be needing those things after this year.

As for the rest of us, for the New Year we wrote a list of resolutions we most likely won't keep! "I resolve to have a supermodel body!," "I am getting a Facebook page!," "I am getting rid of my Facebook page!" "I will never drink as much as I did last night ever again!," "I'm never going back to Iraq," or "I'm will never again drink Starbucks or eat anything Teriyaki flavored while stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord!," you know, stuff like that! Anyway, I digress!

I ran into my old buddy Master Sgt. Johnny Mentor, this morning and he wishes his "habitual line stepping" Airman, would resolve to be smarter. As usual, Airman Snuffy McDufflebag is at it again!

With the war in Iraq coming to a close the great minds at the White House G-14 Classified Interoperability of Strategic Metrics Analysis Operations Office found the key to ending the war in Afghanistan. They came up with a weapon the Taliban would never see coming - mine-sniffing Shih Tzus. It was believed they could get into the little places that people and big dogs can't.

Yes, ten dogs, also known as the Chinese Lion Dog, were being trained right here at McChord Field to be put to work in the areas of responsibility throughout the Middle East and Airmen McDufflebag was put in charge of training the vicious canine to deploy with the 7th Airlift Squadron.

Most of the training for the new four-legged warriors was conducted at the west Shih Tzus mine range on Lewis Main. Snuffy would take the dogs to the range and let them loose. When they find a suspected mine or IED, they would sit down and Snuffy would look through his binoculars to ensure they had accomplished their mission, call them back and give them a snack.

It was pretty tedious work and all Snuffy had to do was repeat the same steps daily. He was doing well, Sergeant Mentor said, paying attention to details, focusing on the task at hand, not skipping or neglecting any of the operational steps he was trained to do and ensuring he was doing everything according to regulations. Snuffy was stepping up for the team!

Well, during his last trip out, Snuffy forgot to bring his binoculars, and decided he would use the scope on his 1851 vintage Musket, he kept in the car, he had just got it for Christmas (Like everybody else! Gun sales this year were 1.5 million in the U.S. in December, geez people ... yeah, I got one too! 2nd Amendment, read it!) Anyway, he thought this would be a great way to check if the dogs had found their marks, scope on a gun, binoculars, what could go wrong.

As Snuffy raised his weapon to check on the dogs, he neglected to check if his weapon was on safety, and failed to keep his fingers off the trigger. While Snuffy was praising the dogs for their mine finding skills, his finger slipped and he shot a mine. And BOOM!!

A cloud of furry dust, pink hair bows and shattered dreams, I would laugh but the animal rights people would be all over me.

With that BOOM!, the message was clear Attention to detail can be defined as "being thorough in accomplishing a task with concern for all areas involved, no matter how small.

Sergeant Mentor emphasized the importance of attention to detail and doing one's job correctly. "Pay attention, and believe in compliance, precision and reliability," he said. "Do it the Air Force way until it changes, and continue to be absolutely professional about what you do."

He added individuals can exude this professionalism and attention to detail in a myriad of ways: in one's personal appearance, in what you say and most markedly in the performance of your duties.

With this year of frequent inspections, continuous deployments and day-to-day mission accomplishment, Sergeant Mentor's word inspired me to make a resolution we can all keep, remain resilient and never take lackadaisical attention to detail approach in day-to-day operations.

Because of Snuffy's lack of an attention to detail, the Air Force is out 10 Shih Tzus and G-14 Classified Interoperability of Strategic Metrics Analysis Operations Office has to go back to the drawing board.

Hopefully the kid learns from this lesson, but as with most habitual line steppers. He will be at it again.