Relentless pursuit of improvement: Personnel Reliability Assurance Program boot camp

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt Emily Seaton
  • 20th Air Force

Chris Brannan and Scott Johnston, the Personnel Reliability Assurance Program managers at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, have been working to refine and improve their PRAP Boot Camp as far back as 2014.

PRAP is the overarching designation for two Air Force reliability programs: the Personnel Reliability Program and Arming and Use of Force. Within 20th Air Force, these programs are used to ensure personnel who perform nuclear-related duties are of sound mind and body on the job.

According to Brannan, the training is meant to bolster the knowledge level of the unit program monitors by identifying all of the major areas they will encounter while managing their programs.

As a graduate of the boot camp, Brian Cain, force program manager for the 90th Civil Engineering Squadron, shared, “There are several intricacies to the Personnel Reliability Program, but the PRP Boot Camp hosted by Chris Brannan and Scott Johnston did a great job deep-diving into the particulars of DoDM5210.42_AFMAN 13-501, Nuclear Weapons Personnel Reliability Program. Chris and Scott methodically dissected and presented the requirements outlined in each chapter of the DoDM/AFI, making the vital information easy to understand and later implement in the unit.”

Over the years, what started as just going over the staff assistance visit checklist to improve PRP within the units, progressed into a slide presentation, Brannan explained. The slide presentation turned into three full days of information. After brainstorming together, Brannan and Johnston decided to make the information easier to digest and apply by going to three half-days.

“They can absorb that information, go back, apply it for the other half of their day, and then come back the next two mornings to do it again,” said Brannan. “We have received nothing but positive feedback from our monitors that have attended these boot camps, not only with what content was discussed, but also with how the course is divided into the three half-days. This allows them to take it all in without information overload.”

At the end of each boot camp, they conduct a quiz to see if there are any areas that need to be further clarified. If anything is identified from the quiz, they return to the topic and reinforce the content to ensure student understanding.

The success of Brannan’s and Johnston’s boot camp was shared with Maj. Gen. Michael Lutton, commander of 20th Air Force, during a meeting with wing commanders.

“The work of Chris and Scott is a great example of Airmen within 20th Air Force making a positive difference for our nuclear mission through quality training and a relentless pursuit of process improvement,” said Lutton.