Benjamin Wolf Email & Phone Number

Pentagon

Assigned to perform strategic analysis for the Director of the Air Force Staff, Integration Office, at Headquarters Air Force, Pentagon. Assists cross-component teams conducting strategic planning, programming, and integration analysis efforts in direct support of the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in their management of Total Force Initiatives and decision making regarding the force structure of the Air Force for the next 30 years.

Whatever our functional career field, our first priority is always to be a Professional Officer for the United States Air Force. This means developing a skill set to solve problems in any environment with a team composed of any demographic, and developing an ability to forge relationships with a spectrum of stakeholders. Leadership means our skill set must extend beyond getting our personnel to produce, we must simultaneously improve our personnel's capacity to produce; we must do more than dictate expectations and enforce consequences, we must work to create a vision of purpose and ensure buy-in to that vision. Within acquisitions, we must learn to develop and exercise these skills without any legal authority or any capability to impose consequences. Finally, being an Officer means understanding the there is an obligation to always pursue excellence and to accept the responsibility of representing the best of America.

Wright Patterson Afb, Oh

I had a lot to learn about the biomedical industry. The job had three pillars: execute programs to develop Aeromedical capability, establish business processes with the Air Force Surgeon General, operate our Aeromedical Test Lab which tests the entire spectrum of medical equipment and verifies them as safe to fly on Air Force (fixed wing) and Army (rotary) aircraft. I changed the focus of my Masters degree to be better prepared, and proceeded to primarily focus on our biggest and most difficult projects- a suite of Research Altitude Chambers and a next-generation Human Centrifuge. In addition to directing engineering dispositions, I established program positions and priorities, renegotiated configuration management processes, set logistical expectations, laid the roadmap for testing, and tracked workload within the government and the contractor. When I returned from Afghanistan, the relationship between my team and the contractor had become significantly constrained. I took it upon myself to restore a collaborative relationship, even while working to resolve the 24 claims filed against us that were under congressional-level scrutiny. Ultimately I drove the resolution of a 4 year struggle to close critical milestones and establish the programs' technical baselines. I established creative relationships with other government organizations to ensure proper inspections and tests were accomplished and proper technical data was submitted to guarantee the ability to operate, maintain, and modify these systems for their lifespan. My process improvement initiatives and cross-functional leadership drove these programs to achieve once-thought unachievable milestones. Once finished, these systems will endow the US Government with the unique capability to perform high altitude (125km) environmental testing, high-G (20G) and high-G-onset testing, and the ability to train pilots for the next generation of aircraft and spacecraft in the decades to come.

Camp Eggers, Kabul, Afghanistan

Despite a lack of civil engineering experience, I was assigned to serve in the Combined Joint Engineering unit for the NATO Training Mission, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. I learned quickly as I assumed responsibility for 38 projects that were the entirety of Afghanistan's Special Operations Forces (SOF) infrastructure. It was a contentious and very unpredictable environment. I coordinated with NATO military commanders and the US State Department, as well as the Afghan Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior, to resolve disputes over concepts of operations, and the requirements in training and resources to execute those concepts. I was able to prevent the cancellation of the Afghan President's #1 SOF project, and enabled critical command, control, communication, and intelligence capabilities, while still saving $22M for the American tax-payer.

Tinker Afb, Ok

In the wake of 2 embarrassing incidents of the Air Force's handling of nuclear-related materials, I was reassigned to a Division under the newly-formed Nuclear Weapons Center, as that Division's Deputy Chief Engineer. Shortly after my arrival, the incumbent Division Chief Engineer was replaced, leading me to take on responsibilities of the Division Chief Engineer while the replacement got up speed. I created, executed, and motivated processes that cut engineering disposition time by 70% and maintenance time by 77%, including cutting a a month off the schedule for a support equipment modification to prevent further maintenance fatalities. When we started experiencing the departure of unit personnel with decades of technical experience, I created knowledge capture and new-hire training programs to reduce mission impact. I also helped forge Operating Instructions of the newly-formed Nuclear Weapons Center by steering process metrics and systems engineering processes and inspection methods.

Tinker Afb, Ok

I was immediately assigned as the first government engineer tasked to rebuild a B-1 that had suffered a catastrophic hydraulic fire in Guam 2 years prior and was suffering corrosion from being unprotected from the island environment. B-1s have a system to sweep the wings back during flight, and a wing had never been changed in the field before. When I arrived, there had been no progress for weeks. I took over management of the program despite having no authority over the civilian maintenance personnel from Tinker, the military maintenance personnel from South Dakota, the engineering personnel from Boeing, or any personnel at the Air Base in Guam. I worked with Boeing to devise the method for removing and replacing the wing, and in the 10 weeks I was assigned we made 18 weeks worth of progress on the schedule. The project was a complete success. Next, I was tasked with resolving 2 perpetually broken aircraft at Edwards that had caused a 3 year delay and was threatening to cancel 3 upgrade programs valued at over $1.3B. Again without any authority, I worked with stakeholders including military and civilian maintenance personnel and Boeing contractors and planned/prioritized/oversaw the repair of over 900 discrepancies with the 2 aircraft. In only 3 months, all programs were on a path to successful completion. I was then promoted to the role of acting Engineering Branch Chief, supervising 13 engineers before my scheduled reassignment.

Ali Al Saleem, Kuwait

In Kuwait, I used my structural engineering capability to design and execute fixes to C-130 and A-10 aircraft being used in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the only engineer on the base, I had to secure buy-in for my expertise with both the Maintenance Group Commander and the maintenance technicians assigned to the base. My quick and decisive repairs of countless damage beyond the bounds of the published tech data led to the highest Fully Mission Capable rates that C-130s had ever achieved in theater.

Kunsan Ab, South Korea

Without any previous experience with Operational Exercises (exercising a unit's ability to perform its operational mission in a war-time environment), I was tasked with leading the effort to train the 3000+ United States personnel at Kunsan (Air Force and Army) along with the nearby South Korean Army and Air Forces to perform their jobs in a coordinated way during worst case scenarios, such as falling under attack from chemical weapons. I motivated 145 senior enlisted and officer personnel who either volunteered for or where assigned to this additional duty, and scripted and executed a program of training and rehearsals for all personnel over the period of a year. In our capstone inspection, we achieved one of the highest grades in the history of the Pacific Command, with specific high marks for each vital operational capability.

Edwards Afb, Ca

My experience in solving complex problems and working with fiercely independent people was tapped to manage my unit's Data Management Flight, 25 civilian personnel across a variety of IT professions. I learned a great deal about software development, helped untangle the tech-refresh program, managed our test flight control rooms upgrade without impacting our mission support, and helped to create a dedicated secure data transmission system between CA and TX.

Edwards Afb, Ca

I single-handedly resurrected the Reliability-Availability-Maintainability capability for F-16 Developmental Testing. I was the only Engineer assigned to the role, and without supervision and guidance managed to forge relationships with the maintenance units in California, the Program Office in Ohio, and the contractors assigned the programs across the country. Most notably, my analysis of maintenance data was instrumental in improving the combat availability of the advanced air-to-ground targeting system from 20% to 100%, and reducing the downtime of next generation air-to-air targeting capability by 40%.

Nellis Afb, Nv

As a Maintenance Officer, I was the Officer in Charge of the Avionics Flight (Radar and Electronic Warfare), then the Accessories Flight (Fuels and Hydraulics), and finally the Eagle (F-15) Aircraft Maintenance Unit (AMU). I was responsible for accomplishing the mission while managing the workloads and ensuring the professional development and general welfare an increasing number of airmen, peaking at nearly 180 people. I learned the structure and functions of the supply and transportation systems to help improve their support of my unit, the operations scheduling systems to help balance the workload of my people, and of course how to focus and motivate a group of young airmen while earning credibility with much more experienced senior enlisted personnel. I helped guide Eagle Flight to the highest FMC rate in 3 years at 85.6%, hit 100% mission scheduling effectiveness, and for the first time graduated a Weapons School class with zero waived sorties. Not only did I directly contribute to developing and proving the Air Force's "First Look, First Shot, First Kill" capability by supporting weapons systems operational testing and ultimately flying against MiG-29 aircraft, but I helped start the movement in my unit that would turn the worst AMU (statistically) in Air Combat Command to AMU of the Year for Nellis AFB in 2004.

Master Of Business Administration - Mba

Earning my MBA allows me to utilize my experience across the acquisitions, logistics, and operations enterprises to effectively respond.

Master Of Aeronautical Science, Human Factors, 3.9 Cumulative Gpa

During my time in the Air Force, I concluded that almost every problem I encountered (and certainly the most challenging problems) were.

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Major: Engineering Sciences; Track: Space Systems Design; Minor: Mathmatics, 3.4 Major'S Gpa, 2.8 Cumulative Gpa

Activities and Societies: Military related: Jump training, Soaring, Combat Survival Training, Basic Military Training Instructor..