Master Sgt. Ernest Harrison, 386th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron transportation management office superintendent, was working his liaison officer duties at a host nation port when something caught his eye.
“I saw this massive piece of equipment, but had no idea it was an Air Force asset,” Harrison said. “My predecessor gave me a list of all the assets I needed to track and this was not one of them.”
The item in questions, a 50-ton U-30 aircraft tow tractor, had somehow dropped off the inventory list during the changeover.
“Normally it’s dark when I finish my work, but on this particular day I finished early and took a couple of pictures of this thing,” Harrison said. “I wrote down the weight and the tag number and sent it to the Air Forces Central guy in charge of all the vehicles in the region.”
As it turns out, AFCENT was in the process of ordering a new U-30 to support the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing’s C-17 operations.
“He wrote me back and said, ‘Where did you find this thing’ and I said, ‘It was sitting out here in the middle of a field all by itself,’ and the best part was it started right up,” Harrison said.
Harrison’s detective work allowed AFCENT to cancel the equipment order and scratch the C-17 mission slated to transport the 100,000 pound U-30, saving the Air Force $348,571.73.
While Harrison will not receive a monetary Air Force Innovative Development Through Employee Awareness Program award, he said “As you know the budget is tight and just knowing I saved the Air Force this money is a great feeling.”