HomeNewsArticle Display

NCO awarded $10,000 for IDEA

By Senior Airman Danny Monahan , Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs / Published April 20, 2006

Tech Sgt. James Mazurek, 5th Maintenance Squadron, shows where a tow bar hooking up to the main landing gear of a B-52H Stratofortress can cause damage. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Danny Monahan)
PHOTO DETAILS  /   DOWNLOAD HI-RES 1 of 1

Tech Sgt. James Mazurek, 5th Maintenance Squadron, shows where a tow bar hooking up to the main landing gear of a B-52H Stratofortress can cause damage. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Danny Monahan)

PRINT | E-MAIL
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- A good idea came with a good reward for an Airman from the 5th Maintenance Squadron. 

Tech. Sgt. James Mazurek was awarded $10,000 from the Air Force Innovative Development through Employee Awareness program April 13. He submitted an idea to insert a warning paragraph to the technical orders for hooking up a tow bar to a main landing gear of a B-52H Stratofortress. When the two come in contact it can cause extensive damage to the aircraft brake assembly. 

“I tried to think of various ways to avoid the contact between the MLG brake assembly and tow bar and the simplest way was to just tell people to not contact the brake assembly with the tow bar,” said Sergeant Mazurek. 

By eliminating main landing gear damage, the estimated first year savings for Minot is $95,740.25. 

“Years ago money and parts were not so much of an issue,” said Sergeant Mazurek. “But now there’s less money and less parts because we’re working on a 40-year old plane.” 

Sergeant Mazurek found out about the IDEA program from his Air Force Engineering and Training representative. 

“I wasn’t too familiar with how the program works,” said Sergeant Mazurek. “I just figured any extra money is a good thing.” 

Anyone with access to a military computer may submit an IDEA on the IPDS Web site, but only active-duty military and appropriated fund employees are eligible for cash awards. Also, an IDEA must be a person’s own thought and be submitted with the intent of being beneficial to the US government.  

“Prior to submitting an IDEA, people should check the IDEA pool located in IPDS,” said Judi Green, Minot Air Force Base IDEA program manager.  “If the Air Force has not already paid for a suggestion, it may be entered into the system.  The easiest way to submit is to create a Microsoft Word document with three sections:  The Current Process; Proposed Change; and Expected Benefits.  The submitter can then copy/paste it into IPDS.”  

IDEAs can earn 15 percent of the estimated first-year savings with a minimum award of $200 and a maximum award of $10,000.  

As for Sergeant Mazurek’s $10,000, he plans to put it to good use.

“I plan to invest some of it, and do a few home improvement projects,” said Sergeant Mazurek. 
USAF Comments Policy
If you wish to comment, use the text box below. AF reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.

This is a moderated forum. That means all comments will be reviewed before posting. In addition, we expect that participants will treat each other, as well as our agency and our employees, with respect. We will not post comments that contain abusive or vulgar language, spam, hate speech, personal attacks, violate EEO policy, are offensive to other or similar content. We will not post comments that are spam, are clearly "off topic", promote services or products, infringe copyright protected material, or contain any links that don't contribute to the discussion. Comments that make unsupported accusations will also not be posted. The AF and the AF alone will make a determination as to which comments will be posted. Any references to commercial entities, products, services, or other non-governmental organizations or individuals that remain on the site are provided solely for the information of individuals using this page. These references are not intended to reflect the opinion of the AF, DoD, the United States, or its officers or employees concerning the significance, priority, or importance to be given the referenced entity, product, service, or organization. Such references are not an official or personal endorsement of any product, person, or service, and may not be quoted or reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying AF endorsement or approval of any product, person, or service.

Any comments that report criminal activity including: suicidal behaviour or sexual assault will be reported to appropriate authorities including OSI. This forum is not:

  • This forum is not to be used to report criminal activity. If you have information for law enforcement, please contact OSI or your local police agency.
  • Do not submit unsolicited proposals, or other business ideas or inquiries to this forum. This site is not to be used for contracting or commercial business.
  • This forum may not be used for the submission of any claim, demand, informal or formal complaint, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notice or process, or for the exhaustion of any legal and/or administrative remedy.

AF does not guarantee or warrant that any information posted by individuals on this forum is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information. AF may not be able to verify, does not warrant or guarantee, and assumes no liability for anything posted on this website by any other person. AF does not endorse, support or otherwise promote any private or commercial entity or the information, products or services contained on those websites that may be reached through links on our website.

Members of the media are asked to send questions to the public affairs through their normal channels and to refrain from submitting questions here as comments. Reporter questions will not be posted. We recognize that the Web is a 24/7 medium, and your comments are welcome at any time. However, given the need to manage federal resources, moderating and posting of comments will occur during regular business hours Monday through Friday. Comments submitted after hours or on weekends will be read and posted as early as possible; in most cases, this means the next business day.

For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain "on-topic." This means that comments will be posted only as it relates to the topic that is being discussed within the blog post. The views expressed on the site by non-federal commentators do not necessarily reflect the official views of the AF or the Federal Government.

To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personally identifiable information, such as name, Social Security number, DoD ID number, OSI Case number, phone numbers or email addresses in the body of your comment. If you do voluntarily include personally identifiable information in your comment, such as your name, that comment may or may not be posted on the page. If your comment is posted, your name will not be redacted or removed. In no circumstances will comments be posted that contain Social Security numbers, DoD ID numbers, OSI case numbers, addresses, email address or phone numbers. The default for the posting of comments is "anonymous", but if you opt not to, any information, including your login name, may be displayed on our site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this comment policy. We encourage your participation in our discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.

Contact Us

To reach the Minot Air Force Base Main Directory, call: Commercial (701) 723-7979 or DSN: 453-7979.   

To request Public Affairs support, please fill out an Air Force Form 833 and email to the Minot AFB Public Affairs workflow mailbox. 

Unfortunately, we are not accepting marquee requests since our marquee board is down for an undetermined amount of time. Thank you for understanding.

FacebookFacebook
InstagramInstagram
TwitterTwitter
FlickrFlickr
YouTubeYouTube