Indiana Air National Guard Airmen 

Provide Glimpse into Fighter Aircraft Operations

Capt Tim (Doctor) Rusch, F16 Pilot, and MSgt Eric Anspaugh, F16 Crew Chief, 
provided an extraordinary and comprehensive overview on fighter aircraft combat 
unit operations. Their presentation consisted of video movies clips along with a 
narrated photo travelogue of hundred's of interesting scenes about the unit's 
2004 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The quality concepts 
surrounding performance excellence were brought to life as aspects of material 
and equipment logistics and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) lean principles 
were presented. How effective combat decisions are made were explained in 
detail. The relationships of planning and realistic training to achieving 
successful operations, with an emphasis on the adverse resource impact without 
high quality preparation, was also demonstrated. The audience learned the 
magnitude of the planning and resource preparations necessary in order to 
realize an accurate, precise, and effective outcome when fighter pilots respond 
to ground soldiers under fire (customers) within just a few minutes after 
notification (time sensitive targeting or TST). The effect of aircraft avionics 
design selections and features on performance was a key insight by everyone.

The personal experiences of both these airmen were inspirational and of high 
interest. Information quality was a theme of the meeting as Captain Rusch walked 
through a number of media quotations related to his personal observations. He 
demonstrated the variance between the known facts and the media reports and 
petitioned the audience to be cautious on drawing conclusions with limited 
information. Captain Rusch and MSgt Anspaugh ended their presentation with a 
number of questions and answers, soon followed by a standing ovation by the 
audience and numerous personal handshakes of gratitude and thanks for their 
service to our country.