JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Tech. Sgt. Kyle Gossen is like a storm rolling over the plains. He attacks various duties from all directions, and all there is to do is tie down what you can and hope he doesn't take the roof off.
In other words, Gossen attacks and dominates every mission in his sight.
In March, Gossen arrived in a new role at the 340th Flying Training Group front-loaded with a master's level savvy to resolve issues. His cool disregard for pressure and his iron-clad work ethic provided solutions to hard-to-fix problems following the mandatory unit training assembly in May.
During the MUTA, Airmen completed mandatory annual training. Gossen's responsibility was to update information in the system, but a mini-roadblock blocked his path. Without a search function in the application, he manually updated personnel on MUTA briefed training activities.
"I had to sort through every member of the Air Force, well over 800,000 individuals," Gossen said. "So, roughly about 20 extra hours were spent on reducing overdue training by 50%."
Next, the battle-tested former Reserve MTI hit the front-line trenches to nail down a qualified person to teach CPR, which is mission-critical for unit fitness program managers.
This wasn't an easy task, but Gossen, armed to the teeth with a plan to find his instructor put it to use immediately.
"It's mandatory to network in this position; without the connections I have made over the past few months, I doubt I would have been able to find a provider for the class. Often, it's all about who you know," Gossen said.
Gossen completed the mission and found Tech. Sgt. Constance Cole with the 359th Medical Support Squadron to provide CPR training for fitness managers.
The bottom line is, Gossen secured a solution for the group's points-of-contact to complete critical components in performing their training.
Gossen displayed patience to complete his next mission in crunch time: to transfer personalists' training records. Gossen moved records to a new system, but it didn't work. This sudden and unforeseen blow forced him to spend countless hours aligning training records with members.
"It was necessary to build each individual in a system called Training Business Area from scratch and transfer all their tasks from one program to the other for 19 individuals with 34 core tasks and many more non-core tasks," Gossen said.
Gossen says he's happy to be acknowledged. Still, his biggest achievement is filling the group's NCOIC of education and training manager position. "The faster you sometimes move, the harder it is to see how you have an impact. It's terrific to be a part of an organization that recognizes hard work," Gossen added.
The "On the Spot Award" is presented to highlight exceptional performance. Gossen fulfilled the day-to-day necessities of his role and impacted 340th FTG readiness. With a stoic demeanor and an A-level masterfulness, his contributions in the new role have been noticed in four short months, and he's being recognized for his contributions to the 340th FTG team.