I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4513 To authorize the Secretary of the Air Force to designate the Illinois Air National Guard 126th Air Refueling Wing at Scott Air Force Base as a Center of Excellence for KC-135R maintenance operations. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 Mr. BOST (for himself, Mrs. BUSTOS, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. KINZINGER, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, and Mr. LAHOOD) introduced the following bill; which was re- ferred to the Committee on Armed Services A BILL To authorize the Secretary of the Air Force to designate the Illinois Air National Guard 126th Air Refueling Wing at Scott Air Force Base as a Center of Excellence for KC-135R maintenance operations. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Air National Guard 4 Air Refueling Wing Center of Excellence Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:56 Oct 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4513.IH H4513 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4513 IH (1) The 126th Air Refueling Wing has a long, 1 decorated history of exceeding its fiscal year goals in 2 Mission Capable Rate, Aircraft Availability, Hourly 3 Use, Home Station Logistics Departure Reliability, 4 flying hours, sorties, and fuel offloaded. 5 (2) The 126th Air Refueling Wing was the top 6 performing KC-135R unit in 2016, receiving the Air 7 Force Outstanding Unit Award. 8 (3) The 126th Air Refueling Wing had the 9 highest mission capable rating for all KC-135R air- 10 craft, Active, Guard and Reserve for fiscal years 11 2016, 2017, and 2018, and is on track for fiscal 12 year 2019, with a 89.06 percent mission capable rat- 13 ing. 14 (4) The 126th Air Refueling Wing set the bar 15 for home station departure reliability rate, exceeding 16 Air Mobility Command’s goal of 78 percent with a 17 three-year average of 98.16 percent. 18 (5) The 126th Maintenance Group won the cov- 19 eted Maintenance Effectiveness Award for being the 20 top Maintenance Group in best Small Aircraft Main- 21 tenance unit category (<300 personnel) in the Air 22 National Guard for fiscal year 2017. 23 (6) The 126th Maintenance Group was the vi- 24 sionary of ‘‘Project 14’’, which is the premier 14-day 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:56 Oct 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4513.IH H4513 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4513 IH KC-135 periodic inspection model championed by 1 the National Guard Bureau. 2 (7) The 126th Maintenance Group completed 3 17 periodic inspections of aircraft and nine periodic 4 inspections on other units’ KC-135s, increasing the 5 mission capable rating by 8 percent and potentially 6 setting the standard for periodic inspection regional- 7 ization. 8 (8) The 126th Air Refueling Wing flew 27 9 black letter flights (aircraft with zero discrepancies), 10 including one flight in CENTCOM to support the 11 warfighter. 12 (9) Air Mobility Command awarded the 126th 13 Air Refueling Wing was the top tanker wing in fuel 14 efficiency for fiscal year 2016 and 2017. 15 (10) The 126th Maintenance Group spear- 16 headed the modeling of conditioned based mainte- 17 nance plus, the benchmark for all KC-135 units. 18 (11) The 126th Air Refueling Wing supported 19 the Illinois State Partnership Program, strength- 20 ening ties with the Polish Air Force during Joint 21 Exercises BALTOPS/Clear Sky in 2018, flying 23 22 sorties while offloading 875,000 pounds of fuel to 23 102 receivers. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:56 Oct 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4513.IH H4513 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 4513 IH (12) The 126th Air Refueling Wing supported 1 Joint Forces Domestic Operations in support of 2 Hurricane Irma relief efforts in 2017. 3 (13) The 126th Mission Support Group’s Logis- 4 tics Readiness Squadron was awarded the Air Na- 5 tional Guard’s Base Logistics Activity of the Year in 6 2017. 7 (14) The 126th Maintenance Group mantra of 8 ‘‘Fix It Today Safely’’, combined with the overall 9 126th Air Refueling Wing efforts, enabled aircraft to 10 safely fly over 3,500 sorties and over 16,000 hours 11 to refuel more than 2,700 U.S. Air Force and Allied 12 aircraft in fiscal years 2016, 2017, and 2018. 13 (15) Several members of the 126th Air Refuel- 14 ing Wing have received honors for their superior 15 work, including: 16 (A) #1 Paralegal in a Reserve Component 17 for 2018 as awarded by Air Mobility Command 18 and recognized by Judge Advocate General 19 Corps; 20 (B) #1 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Re- 21 connaissance Senior Noncommissioned Officer 22 in Air Mobility Command for 2017; 23 (C) #1 Noncommissioned Officer in the 24 State of Illinois for 2018; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 Oct 02, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4513.IH H4513 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 4513 IH (D) #1 1st Sergeant in the State of Illi- 1 nois for 2018; and 2 (E) #1 Airman in the State of Illinois for 3 2017. 4 SEC. 3. AUTHORITY TO DESIGNATE A CENTER OF EXCEL- 5 LENCE FOR KC-135R MAINTENANCE. 6 The Secretary of the Air Force may designate the 7 Illinois Air National Guard 126th Air Refueling Wing at 8 Scott Air Force Base as a Center of Excellence for KC- 9 135R maintenance operations. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:56 Oct 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4513.IH H4513 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS