Travelle Wright

I began my studies at Alabama State University after high school and only started thinking of joining the military because of my work-study job at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base. The person in charge was a former Tuskegee airman. The more he talked about his experiences, the more interested I became in the Air Force. He suggested that I try out the Air Force Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC). I signed up for a class and I loved it. The entire ROTC experience was great because it prepared me for military life. I learned military-related activities such as how to march and physical fitness, but also learned how to take on important responsibilities at a young age. When I was in charge of the Color Guard, for instance, I knew that everyone depended on me to get the job done right. I left Alabama State University with a degree in Business Administration and was ready for my first military assignment.

My first job as a commissioned officer was as a Deputy in the Accounting and Finance Office at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington. Although I had plenty of oversight and training, I was entrusted with a budget of several thousand dollars for several hundred personnel. I did take a 3-month accounting and finance course, but my best training was on the job handling day-to-day cost estimates and expenditures.

By the time that I moved to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado two years later, I was a Chief in the Financial Services Office. Peterson is a large base, so my responsibilities and duties increased.  In this particular job, I was responsible for the travel office, the military pay office, and the account and liaison office. This was an interesting and very challenging job because I dealt directly with personnel and their financial matters. I had to make tough decisions about travel expense reimbursement, for example, and relay these decisions to personnel. In addition, I was in charge of operational readiness inspections and biennial inspections that check to see if the base is fiscally responsible and efficient. I learned a lot about customer service in the three years that I stayed at Peterson and also developed professional and organizational skills.

I took on several different finance and budget jobs once I left Peterson. These assignments took me to Washington, D.C. and back to my home state of Alabama. One of my most interesting jobs was not in finance, specifically. I spent six months working as a Joint Staff Briefer for the Director of Intelligence at Bolling Air Force Base. This assignment took me out of my comfort zone, but gave me a tremendous opportunity to understand Air Force operations. I researched information for the Yugo Task Force Team during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and gave briefings to the General every morning. This was a unique experience.

Although I have not been deployed, I did participate in Top Dollar, a training exercise that puts finance specialists in situations that they could encounter in a real deployment, such as handling pay disbursements, setting up allotments, purchasing goods from and negotiating contracts with foreign vendors, and managing a contingency budget.

Currently, I am stationed at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. I am the Chief of Financial Management at the Aerospace Data Facility (ADF). The ADF is a space tracking and data processing center that monitors information from satellites across the globe. I’m responsible for the operations budget of the finance shop. I take care of the day-to-day finances of the ADF, including any bills that have to be paid as a tenant to the base (such as utilities) and any bills we owe for anything on contract (such as supplies and equipment). I take part in monthly meetings about the budget, budget projections, and budget items that are unfunded. If there are new items that we need to obtain or if unexpected budget issues arise, I keep the directors and branch chiefs informed. I need to analyze each situation individually and then decide if the budget needs to be revised for a particular program.

Throughout my career, I’ve found that the military demands a high level of responsibility from its personnel. The responsibility that I’ve been entrusted with over my 15-year career has enabled me to explore my career field fully and given me great opportunities to learn leadership skills. I can’t imagine that I would have had these same opportunities if I hadn’t joined the military.