Hammer Jammer University - MWR Fundamentals
By Hmrjmr1
This is part of a series of articles about Morale Welfare and Recreation Operations (MWR) in a contingency environment. A series of lessons learned based on 4 ½ years of experience in Iraq from 2004-2008. I dedicate this series to the Men and Women of FOB Hammer MWR aka The Hammer Jammers, “The Best MWR Team on the Planet”; so to Amir, Dejan, Sabina, Sadina, Mirsad, Patrick, Mark, and Chris, and special thanks to Shiabu, and the SCW guys. A particular thanks to LTC Kelly Lawler “The Governor”, MSG Roy Brown, “MWR 07”, and Camp Manager Joey
Wilson, for the exceptional care and focus on all things MWR, and led the building effort of the FOB from the dust on up; and finally I would
be remiss not to mention the best MWR Functional Area Manger (FAM) anywhere, Ms Pennie Bannister, who has the toughest job in MWR and provided the best in insight and support of the Hammer Jammers. Finally, I am totally responsible for the content of these articles and they represent my views on the operation of MWR programs in a contingency environment and no endorsement of these thoughts have been sought after or given by either the US Government or any contracting agency or company. I give you HammerJammerUniversity…
As in any operational program there are a few fundamentals that must be followed to make the program a success. They were stressed by me to all the Hammer Jammers and are the culmination of dissecting both successes and failures inevitably, the successes showed strong fundamentals and the failures were usually the result of overlooking one or several of them. These may seem to be oversimplified but if you look carefully at your programs and operations with a critical eye, it will verify the above statement.
First and foremost is cleanliness. Keeping your facility and equipment clean and well maintained is the first and foremost driver of headcount. Even in a high stress environment it can be done. FOB Hammer was a living example of that as we were built on a site that had in some places, “Iraqi Moon dust” that was mid-calf deep yet we had one of the highest Operationally Ready (OR) rates in the Baghdad area. This philosophy also is a function of what your primary customer – The Soldier – expects. They as a whole have been trained to think in a neat, orderly, and disciplined way; if your facilities do not live up to their expectations they will find alternate ways to work out and entertain themselves.
As I said earlier cleanliness will have a direct impact on the OR rate of your equipment, the dust is pervasive and affects all the moving parts and electrical connections of every piece of equipment you have. There is nothing more frustrating for a soldier than, when they finally have time to work out, play in your tournament, sing some karaoke, or just hang out in the lounge, than to find the treadmill, pool table, sound equipment non-operational, or the furniture dirty. They may come once, they may not even complain (LOL), but they will not return. But you can bet that the Preventative Med will, and they will not be happy. I can not stress this one enough, keeping your facility and equipment clean must be a life and living philosophy for all MWR workers.
The second, but only by a hair, is friendly customer service. There is no more effective way to make people feel comfortable in your facility than to greet them with a smile. You build on that by moving around the facility and asking if they are having a good workout, having a good time, or are there ways we can make the programs better? To accomplish this you have to leave all your personal issues back in the tent, and remember that it’s Showtime every minute of your working day.
As a personal example of this, the most difficult working day of my life came on Nov 12th 2005, I returned to work at Abu Ghraib MWR 28 days after my wife of 23 yrs, Zena passed away. On that day I had some Marines come in to the facility that unbeknownst to me had just lost one of their own on a mission, they wanted me to set up karaoke in the middle of the day. I could have begged it off or done it begrudgingly, but I complied and spent some time hosting their show and giving them encouragement, and did it with a smile. It wasn’t till several days later that their Chaplain stopped by to thank me and explained that they had wanted to sing for their friend, who had been a primary source of their entertainment with his singing. They had commented to him during their counseling how much it meant to them for the time and opportunity to say good bye that way and how friendly and helpful I had been.
The point of this all is that you cannot always know what brings the troops to your facility that day. But you will with a certainty, be remembered by them for good or bad depending on how you treat them. As an aside to all the above, the rec center headcount went up exponentially the rest of the time the Marines were there. That during a period when the threat was high and you had to “Body Armor Up” and walk 800m to get to the facility, and once there you had to do the same just to go outside and use the latrine. When they like what you do, when they feel comfortable, troops will show up, no matter what the inconvenience.
The third fundamental is preventative maintenance and repair of your equipment. This particularly important in the high stress environments of most of the FOB’s; dust is a killer in the moving parts, bearings, and electrical components of your equipment. The manufacturer of most equipment will publish a Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services (PMCS) schedule in the manual that comes with it. These schedules are developed in the normal operating conditions found in the US or other developed areas. Needless to say if you wait a month to clean the decks and belts of your treadmills you are going to have lots of problems and down time. The formula I used at FOB Hammer was if the manufacturer called for it daily we did it on each shift, if it was weekly we did it daily, monthlies we did weekly, quarterlies we did monthly and so on.
Additionally, PMCS is everybody’s business, male, female, SCW, contractor, coordinator, technicians, and supervisor must be involved in accomplishing PMCS. This too goes hand in hand with knowing your client and customers; your client (FOB Mayors, Governors, Commanders) track OR information through community meetings, observation, customer reports, and cross check it with reports from Higher HQ’s. Your CampManager and FAM do the same. The frustration builds pretty rapidly when treadmills quit in mid-stride and dump the FOB Commander or Sergeant Major unceremoniously on the floor after flipping them over the console. The other common occurrence is to have them show up and see three out of eight machines tagged out of order; or worse yet you show up to do the sound for a military ceremony and the Passport PA 250 is dead on arrival. These are not pleasant surprises and will reflect poorly on the MWR as a whole and you individually.
The fourth and final corner stone fundamental is to be technically proficient in all aspects of MWR Programs and Operations. Coordinators, Technicians, and Supervisors, are not hired or promoted to work only in one type of facility. If your strengths are in Fitness Center Operations you need to train on the RecCenter side, and vice a versa to a level that presents a professional appearance to your customers and clients. This also entails knowing the MWR Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Scope of Work (SOW), and Desk Top Operating Procedure (DTOP) for all of your Facilities and Operations. Much of this information is proprietary so I will not go into depth here but to say, that these knowing these documents in detail and who you can discuss them with is the cornerstone that provides you the professionalism step to increased responsibilities and pay.
There is one other item that must be addressed here; that is Safety . I do not include it as a corner stone because it has to be a bit more than that. Safety must be a lifestyle and is an umbrella for MWR operations. It must be a pervasive in all you do. Approaching every task with safety as the first element, the first thought in programs and operations is a must. There is not one single thing you do in MWR that is worth getting hurt for. Much more so unsafe operations can rapidly turn MWR programs into Force Detractors instead of the Force Multipliers the military expects it to be. You are working with equipment that has moving parts, electrical motors, heavy weights, and high amperage electricity everyday. You conduct sporting and entertainment events in stressful environments where you have to manage the risk. Make it your first thought of the day, your first thought of every action you take, your first thought of every program you conduct, and your last thought as you close out your shift.
Here is one last thought to I’d like to leave with you. As an MWR worker you should be aware that your close contact with the troops in a high stress environment means you will be remembered. I worked closely at FOB Loyalty with a unit stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga near my home. During my time there I became very close with some of the Senior Leadership and kept in touch by e-mail. On one of my R&R’s home I was invited to a surprise birthday party for one of their wives whom I had never met. Right after the big surprise she walked up to me without me being introduced, threw open her arms gave me hug and said “You must be Big John! I have heard so much about you!” It seems after their redeployment to home station my friends had routinely gathered and told the stories about Karaoke nights, the Coffee Pot Club, etc.. to their gathered wives and friends; and apparently I was a common element in many of them, so much so that the wives club for that unit all knew me by reputation and were anxious to meet me and thank me for looking out for their soldier in my own sort of way. It was a real surprise to me at the time and that incident more than any other shaped the way I developed my MWR skills and programs. So I think it is pretty safe to say no matter good or bad you will be remembered by many for a long time to come; it is solely up to you how that memory will take shape…..
