It pays to have an IDEA

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Sarah Martinez
  • 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  A technical sergeant from the 1st Special Operations Communication Squadron received a $10,000 check for his simple but effective money-saving idea at Hurlburt Field July 14.

Tech. Sgt. Richard Strong, 1st SOCS civil engineer program manager, received the check as part of the Innovative Development through Employee Awareness Program after submitting his suggestion in January.

"Simple ideas are the best ideas because they tend to make the most money," said Master Sgt. Thomas Maxwell, IDEA program manager for Hurlburt Field with the 1st Special Operations Force Support Squadron. "It's a simple online process to submit ideas or suggestions and I want to encourage everyone to push this program through their squadrons."

"Currently, I work in the plans and programming office for the communication squadron but my career field is civil engineering power production so I have a little bit of flavor in both, said Sergeant Strong. "All the base's technology requirements flow through me and I saw that one and it caught my eye because that was a lot of money being spent."

During a technology evaluation, Sergeant Strong realized that replacing the base's Uninterrupted Power Supply units cost $137,000 a year. He suggested that only the battery had to be replaced, which would save the base as much as $111,172 a year.

"Sergeant Strong had a very bright idea, which is going to pay off quite handsomely. His idea was to keep the box and just replace the battery inside of it. For that very simple but very effective idea I am going to present him with a check of 10,000 dollars," said Col. Michael Plehn, 1st Special Operations Wing Commander, as he handed over the big check.

Sergeant Strong said he planned to buy a digital video recorder with the money, but not without his wife's approval.

"The name is wrong, it should be my wife Karen's name on the check," said Sergeant Strong jokingly.

The IDEA program was designed as an incentive program to reward submitters for approval ideas that benefit the Air Force and government by enhancing processes or improving productivity and efficiency.

For more information about the program or to submit an idea, contact Sergeant Maxwell at (850) 884-4034 or visit https://ipds.randolph.af.mil.