Twitter
Facebook
***image1***Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Ayala has certainly come a long way from her hometown in Dubuque, Iowa. She is the NCOIC, operations and quality assurance branch for Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe A7’s Kaiserslautern Military Community Center Program Division.
She’s gone from living on a farm with her father to entering the Air Force within one week of high school graduation. Nine years later, she has taken on the job of ensuring quality craftsmanship for the Department of Defense’s largest single facility construction project, the KMCC. Sergeant Ayala leads a team of contract engineers overseeing the German state agent for construction, Landesbetrieb Liegenschafts und Baubetreuung, or LBB. Her team works with LBB and German contractors to complete construction on the KMCC to Air Force standards.
The KMCC Quality Assurance NCOIC performs daily inspections of operations within the facility. She is in constant communication with the German state agent working on site, checking contractor’s workmanship against industry standards and looking out for the Air Force’s best interest.
“Sergeant Ayala has been handed a phenomenal task and has performed an equally phenomenal job,” said Maj. Andrew Sheehan, chief of operations and quality assurance at the KMCC project and Sergeant Ayala’s supervisor. “She’s the reason Army and Air Forces Exchange Services, the 435th Services Squadron, facility maintainers and all their customers will enjoy a quality facility for years to come.”
LBB is responsible for building the KMCC, but it is Sergeant Ayala’s job to provide surveillance to ensure LBB and their contractors complete the job according to the specifications.
Her team is currently tracking hundreds of issues that make up the path to project completion. From the design and repair of the roof to the concrete placement throughout the facility, Sergeant Ayala has been an integral part of moving the project forward and ensuring deficiencies get repaired or preferably, prevented.
“I don’t often think about the importance of the job I do day in and day out,” said Sergeant Ayala. “Every so often, though, I look around and think, ‘I’ve really been a crucial part of making this project actually take shape.’”
The KMCC is not the first major project that Sergeant Ayala has been involved with since coming to Ramstein. Since 2003, she has also supervised the construction of the C-5 hanger, the passenger terminal, a small diameter bomb facility, as well as the munitions maintenance facility.
“I’ve never been in such a demanding job before,” said Sergeant Ayala. “Being responsible for the quality assurance for the KMCC forced me to assert myself and has allowed me to grow and learn so much.”
The Air Force places tremendous faith in its junior NCOs with the demanding jobs they are asked to perform each and every day. Sergeant Ayala is no exception.
“Most NCOs lead Airmen to accomplish very specific tasks that they know very well,” said Major Sheehan. “Sergeant Ayala leads a team of specialized German engineers on a collaborative effort with this project. She’s leaps and bounds above her peers.”
If all goes according to plans, LBB will turn the completed facility over to the U.S. in January 2009.
