October warrior of month makes history

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Agneta Murnan
  • 71st Flying Training Wing
Vance Air Force Base, Okla. --  You may not want to pick a fight with Wing Historian Jim Malachowski. He documents meticulously, holds his ground on his objectives and remembers a fearsome number of things. Not to mention he was an Army Ranger and close quarters combat instructor.

He recalled a disagreement he had with former wing commander Col. Bryan J. Benson: they could never agree on who had the better job. Mr. Malachowski, who has been at Vance Air Force Base for almost three years, still insists, "I love it; it is absolutely the best job on base." Why? "I'm working in my hobby. I can't imagine a better job than doing your hobby full time. I know a lot of people won't understand that. They say that history stuff is boring. But it is exciting to me," he said.

Mr. Malachowski is October's Warrior of the Month, but he has been busy the whole year highlighting Air Force heritage during the commemoration of the Air Force's 60th anniversary. He considered it part of his history outreach program.

There were 30 major events this year, and Mr. Malachowski led a task force of 26 Team Vance members to make it happen.

"Col. Klumpp wanted to do AF60 right," he said. "I had to lean forward and take the reigns."

Mr. Malachowski brings his corporate experience to Vance as well. He is a certified Lean/Six Sigma facilitator, which means he knows a thing or two about cutting waste.

"It's not about cutting people, it is about cutting work that has no value added," he said.

As facilitator of AFSO21, an Air Force-wide efficiency initiative launched at Vance this year, he's able to guide a group through the process of eliminating waste.

Although he has great familiarity with process improvement, "as a historian, I'm always looking for more insight into how the wing operates. Listening to 15 really smart subject matter experts during an event is a wonderful opportunity to learn how it all works," he said.

While you may not want to match wits or fists with this man, you can trust him to get the history straight.

"It's just tangibly fun. I love coming to work."