Warrior of the Week: Senior Airman Jeffrey M. Lowder

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Luis Loza Gutierrez
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  

Rank and name: Senior Airman Jeffrey M. Lowder

Unit: 319th Comptroller Squadron

Duty title: Financial Analysis Supervisor

Time in service: 3 years, 4 months

Hometown: Camden, S.C.

Why is serving in the Air Force important to you?
Serving in the Air Force is important to me because I believe in what the Air Force does and I believe that we make a difference. From the overarching reality of the United States' air power affecting our world, to Grand Forks reconnaissance mission that affects our nation, to even the groups that are on base, such as Airmen Against Drunk Driving, that affect our base and its members. What we do is important.

What moment or accomplishment as a Warrior of the North are you most proud of and why?
The accomplishment that I am most proud of is not an individual accomplishment, but a team accomplishment. My unit finished fiscal year 2013 as the top comptroller squadron in Air Mobility Command. Finishing on top for our metrics within AMC is a tough task that required a lot of hard work and extreme attention to detail from everyone in our office. It's great to be a part of such a successful team. Day in and day out I see examples of people putting their individual desires aside to help one another. For example earlier last month Senior Airman John "Don" Shaw stepped up and covered one of my shifts as a physical training leader in order for me to participate in the dedication ceremony for the Chief Master Sgt. Etchberger Airman Leadership School. He proved to be a true wingman that day.

What is your favorite part of your job and why?
There's no doubt that my job can be mundane; checking lines of accounting, reviewing open documents and auditing the previous day's transaction to name a few things. While these tasks may be mundane, they are also extremely important. To describe it accurately, I am the intermediary between companies who need to be paid and those who pay the companies. There are two different aspects of my job that I do enjoy. First, the people that I work with: comptrollers, those within the wing staff agencies, contracting, resource advisors and DFAS [Defense Finance and Accounting Services]. Each of these groups represents different areas work hard to ensure our base's resources are properly allocated and spent to meet the needs of our airmen and our mission. Second, while each document, each line of accounting and each number with in the line of accounting may mean something individually, as a composite it means much more; just like my job. Each small task that we do in my office combines into a larger group of tasks that accumulate into an even larger system that ensures resources are placed correctly so that we can all keep working towards our mission.

Who or what inspires you and why?
My wife, Deborah, inspires me every day to be a better man, husband, father and Airman. She's smart, funny and beautiful and I am continually amazed at how her successes come with seemingly little effort and even less stress. It's not that she doesn't work; she does. She works hard. It's just that while she's working hard she's also making her life look easy and making our life a lot of fun.

What are other reasons that have you come up with for describing the base as a cool place other than your initial reply?
The two things that I really enjoy about Grand Forks are its residents and its pace of life. The residents are some of the friendliest and most down to earth people that I've ever meet and the pace of life here is also very similar to what it is down south; nice and slow.