46th MXG civilian garners Air Force award

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. LuCelia Ball
  • 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  In a busy office, with ringing phones and people walking in and out with questions, one woman represents the calm in the storm.

Gina Pedro, the 46th Maintenance Group maintenance training scheduler, has filled the position for less than a year. Prior to that, she was the executive officer for the 918th Armament Systems Group commander.

Although she has not been in the unit for very long, her efforts have not gone unnoticed.
Recently, Ms. Pedro was selected for one of the Air Force's 2007 Mission Support Awards in the Education and Manager Junior Civilian category after sweeping the competition in Air Force Materiel Command.

With short dark hair and a quick smile, Ms. Pedro fills her day with maintaining the training schedules for nearly 2,000 Airmen in the group, from ancillary training to qualification training.

A typical day may include numerous phone calls and e-mails to unit training managers, discussions with the two Airmen who run the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon maintenance qualification engine training, attendance at a monthly scheduler meeting and sending training completion information on to unit commanders.

"I talk to more than twenty people a day," she said. "When I got here, I had to face several challenges. I had to learn the maintenance 'lingo' and I also had to know who to call upon when certain training situations came up. Once I got that part down, I grew to love this job."

Her love of the job is apparent to her coworkers.

"I arrived here about a month after Gina did," said Tech. Sgt. Jacqueline Ross, 46th Maintenance Operations Squadron NCOIC. "I immediately tagged her as one of the people I could go to if I had questions. She's very knowledgeable and always keeps things around here calm."

Ms. Pedro attributes her success to her organizational skills.

"It's always busy around here, but I seem to thrive on it," she said. "It was scary when I first got here because I had so much to learn, but I created an organized system that works for me, and it gets the job done."

That system increased the scheduling effectiveness to 97 percent. Her coworkers said her success is due to her positive attitude.

"We call her the 'glue' around here because no matter what kind of day we're having, she's always calm and organized," said Tech. Sgt. Gabriel Wright, F-16 maintenance instructor. "It rubs off on us."

While most training that Airmen need is offered here, sometimes an Airman needs something that is a little away from the norm.

"We had a few Airmen who needed some specialized engine training that wasn't available here, so I made some calls and we managed to find an instructor from another base and brought him here to train them," Ms. Pedro said.

In her off-duty time, Ms. Pedro is pursuing a second bachelor's degree in human resource management and volunteers her time to the Make A Wish Foundation.

She says winning awards is nice, but her work is the important part of the job.

"The pilots here put their lives into the maintainers' hands," she said. "It's my job to take care of the maintainers who care for the aircraft by making sure they are always trained properly."