Good morning and welcome to yet another Ogden Air Logistics complex commanders town hall And we'd like to say a special welcome to all our geographically separated units, and we certainly apologize for any technical difficulties That we may have experienced But let's jump right into it. I'm Ron Brown and I'd like to welcome our Amazing team here. We'd like to welcome our commander Brigadier General Gibbs our vice director Miss Hathaway our vice commander colonel Christensen and our senior enlisted advisor chief Arbogast and so let's talk about some of the things that we're going to cover today We are going to look at a very brief intro Well, I think we should do an extended hour an intro nonetheless of Miss Hathaway And then we are going to share a little bit about coven 19 and religious exemptions Then we are going to turn the tables to our strategic plan and give you a little overview of what's happening strategically Then we will talk about some of some of the things that's happening tactically throughout our complex and then cover a couple of Questions and answers that have been submitted by our directors and many of the people from our workforce. All right So let's just get things going. We'll turn things over now to our esteemed leader General Gibbs sir over to you. Great. Thanks, Ron. Hey, good morning everyone and welcome appreciate you attending another town hall This morning. I'm excited to be able to Introduce to you our new vice director for the complex Miss Michelle Hathaway, so I wanted to tell you a little bit about who she is And so I'm going to start with those work experiences and so She started out here a number of years ago as a GS three Staffing split specialist and in fact she started over at the 1200 series So has spent a lot of time in the ALC specifically working at four of the six groups here at Hill Air Force Base and then also ALC Headquarters headquarters ALC staff. She has been both the director of FM and business development And then her last assignment was as a career broadening assignment learning the supply chain As the deputy director of the supply chain group here at Hill So what she focused on as the vice director? Obviously, we've got a number of Opportunities and challenges, but where she's focusing in on is is forecasting how we utilize pay and rewards So you'll hear that a couple of times as we go through today's presentation with you Automation and then planning and scheduling on the personal side. She's been married for 26 years. They have five kids Who have given them five grandkids so far? She loves to fish camp golf and take cruises And so far the the coolest fact that that I have heard there's there's probably other great stories But the coolest one I've heard is when she was chased by a Kodiak bear While in Kodiak, Alaska tree story, so maybe at some point she can share that story with us all But I'll go ahead and turn it back over to you Ron. Thanks, sir. So much and again welcome. It's half the way All right next topic. I think everyone's favorite subject COVID-19 and so we are going to talk about masks vaccinations and waivers and all but We we certainly would like to also say thanks to Colonel Pepper for Providing so many inputs. He wasn't able to make it here today But as our base public health expert, he still Assisted us and on answering a man many of the questions that we and I'm sure you have all right So I'll turn the first question over to General Gibson if you would mind answering and the question just simply says so many are Grateful to have the option of not wearing masks now Do you see a point in the near future on base where we no longer track testing or no longer even wear masks again Or no longer track COVID causes Great question and I too am really grateful that we don't have to wear the masks right now But but I'll say to answer your question It depends so the reason we're not having to wear masks right now the reason we're not having to do the Regular testing that's all because of the lower transmissibility rates or lower transmission rates off installation So at the low and medium levels we can step back from the posture that we have had for essentially the last two years And so it really depends so if the community levels increase again Or if we've got a surge You may see a requirement to go back to masks, but Right now we're doing very well in the local community In fact the numbers that I heard just this morning are are really good and hopefully that trend continues But you know the other thing is this virus is changing and it has changed and mutated multiple times over its life And so if a new and significant variant emerges then mask mandating and testing Maybe a strong possibility, so I wouldn't say go out and get rid of your masks You know have them At home ready to go, but hopefully we don't have to go back to those again And and it would be fair to I mean It's all our hope that everything has gone away But but but there's still some evidence that there may be some more variants popping up So maybe chief can you help us out with this? This was a question that was asked and I think It's a worthy question. Will the federal government require COVID-19 booster shots as part of our of the overarching vaccine requirement. Okay, Ron Studies have shown that the boosters help maintain protective immunity and reduce the mortality rates as for The mandate to actually get the booster shots. It's most likely that's going to be coming from the DOD or level or higher levels Awesome, okay, and so that's that's awesome and of course, you know The general workforce always has had will have these concerns about whether I should or I shouldn't and so Colonel Christensen, maybe this is a good question for you, sir. Any information on COVID waivers and when decisions or Religious exemptions may be approved any timelines anything that you can share on that Yeah, that's a I know that's a question that's out there for all of our civilian workforce The bottom line is back in January. There was an injunction issued against the president's executive order that requires all civilians and contractors to be vaccinated an appellate court declined to stay that which in maintainer terms that means they Decided not to take any action and that got pushed up to the Supreme Court. So because of that the Air Force has halted all activity With regards to waivers and exemptions and at this point we are still on hold We did hear from our headquarters at AFSC that we hope to get some information here in the next week or two But right now the status is what it's been Everything's on hold and we're awaiting more information from the folks that run our department and our Air Force So as always flexibility is the key to air power, you know And and Speaking of which do when we think of Our unique sayings in the Air Force, you know and and just general philosophy fail to plan plan to fail We're going to turn things to our strategic portion and sir I'm going to turn this question over to you here of course We we're really hoping to have a better picture on what we're going to be doing strategically in the complex So do you see anything on the amazing oil see crystal ball? If you will for a strategy that you'd like to share with us crystal ball I have not found that yet, but but I will keep looking So last time I spent a while talking about the airframes that are coming in the workload that we're going to see This time, I think I'll just talk a little bit to what's coming in the closer term still looking out a little ways But so so for three or four or three or four things to share with you You know, so the first is reference our training system. So so TSS We're working with a FMCA for right now to include to improve Our ability to reflect within that system skill of so right now the system only focuses on The throughput from the classes so the number of students that did actually go through and finish the class Versus taking a look at, you know kind of a three five seven skill level from from the The military military side of the house where you're looking at apprenticeships journeymen Master craftsman level and so it's really important for us as we're looking at the workload that's coming in That we plan carefully The different skill levels and right now we don't have a good system to track And so we're looking at building that into our our database the TSS System and that's really going to show the health of the workforce and Enable your leadership to better plan for for the workload that's coming So that's the first thing second thing would be expanding implementation of our depot training school Or depot technical school right now we do that with just sheet metal and the intent would be to expand to electricians composite fabricators and LO technicians Low observable technicians So that courseware development uses all the the latest and greatest technologies It's looking at instructors SMEs courseware developers And talking to your leadership and the intent is right after a new employee orientation And before the folks are released to do a OJT They get a really in-depth immersion into Their particular career field and the intent really is to is to bring you on board a lot faster And then you're primed and ready to go for that OJT training where you're actually out on the aircraft You've got the components taken apart on your table and and you're ready to start doing the OJT so so I'm pretty excited about that and it does make use of our 357 skill levels that we were talking about But it's it's going to be designed to get you through that in premise level much faster than in the past Another thing to share with you is about TAMS or temporary aircraft maintenance shelters or structures The TAMS project is well underway, and you're going to hear that acronym every once in a while What TAMS it really is it's a temporary Hanger that we're putting out on the flight line It's going to facilitate swing space as we do the construction and hangar 225 building 225 You know doing the seismic upgrades That's a multi-year project, and it's basically having us move aircraft around and we are going to lose a bit of space And so having the TAMS Shelter out there that's going to allow for 28 f16 size dock spaces And so really expand our capacity out and allow us to keep operating out of both facilities Allow the workload to continue unbaited so we are at the groundbreaking point for TAMS and Occupancy ready will be November of 23. So I think that would be really exciting to see that that structure actually going up Fourth thing I wanted to share with you I will actually defer based on time and it's talking about the road to green and so this is an initiative that Is underway? So I'll defer to Colonel Christensen He is the expert in this because he's been spending a lot of time focused here with the team And so I'll I'll I'll save time there and give that over to him. So back to you Ron Well, in fact, you know when I heard that and thank you sir And it sounds like we have a lot of work ahead of us. So that's pretty exciting And I don't know if you have heard of the road to green I I did and and I tried to pass the trivia test and I failed I thought it was something about us becoming army again And and that was not it and so I'm Colonel Christensen will clarify this for us. So sir, tell us yes this road to green What is it? Sure? It is we're not turning back into the army or going that way Road to green is a complex wide initiative Where the folks up in the front office all of us at this table Are trying to break down external constraints that the squadrons and the groups deal with every single day We're going to better engage our enterprise partners and DLA supply chain in the Spos To frankly make it easier for everybody to do their job unimpeded Removing constraints and allowing you to be as efficient and effective as possible is what the basis of road to green is We have three primary lines of effort and we'll get into one of those a little bit deeper later But it it is frustrating it is what we all depend on and It is a constraint that we're going to try and improve for you out there We have a focus on hiring and training So not only getting our workforce up to the levels we need for the productivity, but as the general alluded to We have a training focus to make sure that Everybody out there that's doing the job has all the training that we owe them When they get out there and actually work on the airplanes components missiles software, you name it and then finally We are creating a better constraint resolution and elevation process and weaving that into our highest level production meeting so things that don't work right out on the floor are Accelerated up to general Gibbs and Miss Hathaway and even myself so we can Resolve those constraints quicker and get you back to work reduce the further frustrations you have out there Finally we're developing a complex priority system because we have shared resources across our complex that we all use NDI organic manufacturer paint and blast and Making a priority system that makes it very clear where we can best use those resources That's road to green in a nutshell getting us back to green performance Making sure we're financially solvent and making sure that the folks out there that do the hard work and the actual work Not like what we do up here Our best equipped to do that But it really sounds a lot like a O P you know out of the possible in the very very core concept of you know It is a you know safety efficiency of cost speed safety and and Or speed safety quality and cost efficiency, so it is the foundation of road to green very very cool Very very cool. All right. Awesome. You know and speaking of AOP We're still in that strategic realm and so our general ribs. We're gonna turn this back over to you and and I Think we have heard so much about the strategic plan. Well, you know truth be told You know I help for the first time really get behind the entire strategic plan Whoo, it was it was pretty awesome to see that that whole Puzzle being put together, but if you wouldn't mind taking those puzzles pieces apart and sharing a little bit your perspective on on Our strategy our overall overall strategy for our complex Absolutely. Thanks Ron So I don't know that everybody needs to take that document out read that You know have that on your table But I will say there's value in it, especially for your leadership and kind of taking that whole organization And in driving us in one single direction versus a dozen different directions, so it's really useful in that sense So absolutely, I would encourage leaders Even down to our lowest level supervisors. I think it's worth perusing and spending just a couple of minutes taking a look at that I think that strategic plan The the real keys the real takeaways for you are going to be in the goals and Colonel Christensen mentioned the goals just a little bit So we start out by in the document talking about the mission and what it is that we do here And that's really about sustaining military readiness through Regularly maintained aircraft and equipment to support the warfighter. That's the bottom line Now each of us do our jobs and and we focus on speed safety quality cost And then my vision is an empowered team meaning you have ability to make decisions And move out on things and as much as we can empower you we're working to do that It's an empowered team working as partners in innovation delivering resiliency resilient persistent and agile Sustainment and so to those goals how we're going to get after that for primary ones and you'll see that on a slide in front of you You know the first one process This is a huge operation And so we need to be good at processes to be effective and to do our job without waste The second one mission execution. We absolutely need to stay focused on readiness Excuse me readiness of our warfighter Producing on-time and on-budget again. Those are road to green discussions Using art of the possible absolutely the third one resources. There's never enough resources So we have to plan really really well Money parts and most importantly well-trained people to do that job And then people that is number four there And that is not the lowest priority But that is wrapping everything together. That is our most important part as the people recruiting developing retaining That entire workforce is critical and we need to get that right and so our plan addresses how we're going to get after those We have representatives from each of the different areas Each of the different units that are are absolutely integral to the process For the working groups we have a regular Battle rhythm that that we're after and they've made a lot of progress getting after those challenges And so the solutions that you're going to see coming out are not necessarily perfect If I waited for perfection and to get to that 100 solution We would rarely step out with initiatives So we're going to get to an 80 percent solution or better And we're going to move out and then we're going to fix the things that aren't perfect And so looking for feedback from yourself From your your team leadership up channel those get those into the teams And we're going to keep working to improve things So and it's and it's really refreshing this year to this the season this go-round of Of having our strategy not just look on the first one or two years But a five year and maybe even five years and beyond And I think that that really is is setting us all up for not just success But a good sustainment posture and and that's pretty awesome. All right, okay So that's all the strategies stuff here So let's let's kind of take a step down a little bit past the operational into the tactical realm And miss halfway We've got to bring you back in here and and talk about some tactical stuff And we're going to hit safety here in a minute. So just just be ready for that But what holds everything I need to know about the bear. I don't know It's just you know, I got stuck on the kodiak Who gets taste by a bear and so this actually happened It's actually happened. We're not making this up. No, I no I have pictures So I guess for a lot of folks who don't know missile maintenance group actually Helps do some maintenance on a site that's actually out on kodiak island. We actually shoot missiles from that site So it was a tdy trip I had gone on decided, you know, maybe I'll take a few extra days because as you know The general mentioned I I do love to fish Went out fishing and was out in the middle of the river and here comes a bear charging at me I I heard my friend with me and my buddy from mmxg also saying Bear and I looked up and I took off running and went face first into the river So the old adage you don't have to be the fastest. Just don't be the slowest. I was the slowest But yeah, it actually happened. So it's you know Kind of interesting. We're going to mix that with safety not necessarily bear safety but safety Well, you made it so you're my hero again again, you know, all right Safety safety You know, so safety is one of those things that I think we have to remember. It's not just about being safe at work It's about being safe at home as well We have noticed here just in the last, you know, six months even to the year that we've had a slight uptick in Where we would see slips trips and falls Also strains and sprains And you know, for those of us who have lived in utah a really long time We know that we generally see those slips trips and falls happen a little bit more specifically the slips In wintery conditions You know, so just in general awareness, I know a lot of the buildings actually have salt outside VPP our voluntary protection program for safety They do a really good job of providing that type of stuff where you can go out and perhaps You know, if you see that it's icy You know, make sure you go out and salt it if you can save somebody else from falling Trips and falls the majority of that usually happens in our maintenance areas Specifically with our maintenance stands and we do use a lot of hoses and cords And so, you know, just being, you know, generally aware out in the workplace Hey, I've just got to be careful going down those stands and you know and try and watch for those things That are laying out and make sure you don't trip Strains and sprains Usually are happening in our lifting So just again use proper lifting techniques We do have, you know, sometimes you might need to employ the phone a friend And have somebody come out and help you do that So absolutely make sure if you've got something larger that's awkward that somebody goes out and helps you That's mostly in the workplace one other issue I forgot to bring up is we do also work with a lot of fluids in the workplace Where we have folks who slip, you know hydraulic fluid We really need to play some emphasis on housekeeping Make sure that we're going out sometimes we may go up we we wipe it up with a towel But it doesn't get all of it somebody slips and trips On something whether it be a cord or hydraulic fluid just be careful out there The last thing I want to cover is motorcycle safety So it's getting warm out there and there's a lot of us are wanting to get out there on our harleys And or whatever motorcycle you ride and also on bicycles So this again is just one of those things where we all need to be observant and share the road Be watching because you know those guys are all going to be out there in force guys and gals out there on their bikes Doing their things so be careful watch for those people And then next I would say there are safety courses available For the riders go out and take those and please make sure that you're wearing proper gear So I guess just to wrap up, you know, just remember we all want you to get home Safe and sound to your friends and family And you know just be diligent at home and at work when it comes to safety Thanks, ma'am. And and yes, let's take let's let's be good wingman take care of each other Another big issue that's that's coming up and chief i'm going to turn this one over to you So get ready brace yourself here it comes Another issue is Cat cars and and the whole process of getting our cat cars updated and renewed and all that Do you have any latest and greatest on cat car challenges timelines? Um how we can redeem some time with with cat cars and anything that you can share with with our audience First of all the fss section is actually working through a few issues and they have a lot of challenges That's that they have to overcome when it comes to issuing cat cars First of all is all their cat equipment um to actually issue a new card is issued by the data manpower defense center Um, so it's not here locally. It's actually a dod type program And whenever they log on to the system that they actually have to log in through a vpn It's not a local server or anything like that. So anytime any server or computer issues happen It slows down the amount of cards and stuff that they can issue during a day Um, also when they have the equipment if there's issues with the individual pieces of equipment They can't just go out and buy another piece of equipment. They have to actually swap it Um through the data manpower defense center So they might have a uh station that is down for a couple days because they have to take a let's say a thumb card reader Ship it off and actually get another one back before they can bring the station back up Um typically here on base that this fss they normally have four stations up and operating most of the time So they do have a quite a bit of availability to actually schedule appointments um, you should be seeing a Slide in front of you that on the bottom of that slide should have a link That is the link that you need to use to actually go ahead and schedule an appointment when you click on there You it has a couple drop-down menus for asking what your location is And if you're out here in in utah when you click on that You'll actually get two options to either get one here on base or at the the guard unit You can click click either which one and and actually decide where you want to actually get your your card done um The main part about that is you need to schedule early Uh, their appointments are up to 90 days in advance. Um last week I was on there April was already all filled up that they only had the appointments for for the end of may And actually since it's the end of the month June should have just opened up So now would be a good time if you need a new cat card to get on there because there should be a lot more availability for getting an appointment when it comes to Last-minute things we all know sometimes we don't know exactly when our cat cards are going to be due But hopefully you guys look at your cards, you know when they come and do but if you need a cat card They do offer 20 appointments every day For walk-in on basically monday tuesday and wednesday thursdays are are set aside They still do issue a cat card, but they're set aside for our new hire program On the afsc initiative to get the people onboarded quickly that's set aside for thursdays So you can't go on and you can't get a card And we recommend that you get on there as early as possible Monday tuesday wednesday is is appointments as well as fridays, but thursdays are set aside for the new hires um when it comes to Uh going and actually getting your your cat card There's sometimes that you don't actually need to go into the to the actual fss to get it fixed If you're just locked out or need a pin reset There's cat pin resets machines and buildings 843 847 and 1219 So you might be able to get it done locally at at your your own building And also if you get your account if you for some reason you have to get locked out of your account You can call your information assurance officer and they can set you in the right direction or call com Which is here on on base here not outside the gfc use the number is uh five eight six tech And they can help hook you up so that way you can get back uh back in business quickly But the main thing is to plan ahead And make sure when you come in for your appointment you bring two forms id one with uh at least a photo id And the other one doesn't need to have a photo, but they both must be actually current They can't have a expired id you're trying to get another id with it. So so that's about it Awesome. In other words, don't procrastinate is what I've been Hearing and I and I know the folks are doing an incredible job and speaking of people doing an incredible job So many of you um in the in our in our team and our olc family have been doing such an amazing amazing job And we have the opportunity to recognize several and so general Gibbs I as I came into the four year as I see all these wonderful people getting awards Would you like to highlight some of those and just share of all the goodness that's going on So first out. I want to say the Air Force actually has a really good uh awards program And so from the time I was a second lieutenant till now I often hear folks talk about it's not a great system. It's not a great program. There's not enough awards There are a lot and so I just wanted to hit before we jump into the slides 7,843 performance awards 882 notable achievement awards for a total of 12 and a half million dollars And that's just in the past year here at Ogden ALC We've also got 105 named distinguished awards 12 lamp awards logistics airmen mastering possibilities 40 quarterly awards 10 different categories 18 nominations for our afse or afmc commanders To make either personal calls or notes to to our folks peer-to-peer recognition And time-off awards which are effectively unlimited And so we have a lot of awards a lot of ways to recognize stellar performance. So So keep pushing folks into those supervisors. I applaud your efforts So jumping into the slides. I wanted to share with you Right off the bat leo marquez award winners So these are the nominees from the Ogden ALC And then the next slide we've got is the afse level folks. So congratulations to them The next one is the annual excellence awards. And so We've got our Ogden ALC nominees. So congratulations and good luck to each of you The maintenance professional of the year awards That is also for the Ogden ALC nominees, so you'll see those folks And then we have a winner at the afmc level. I don't know if that's uh spelled out on the slide I can't see that right now, but that is major matthew hall. So congratulations for the win at afmc And then finally the depot maintenance members of the year Again, these are the Ogden ALC nominees Congratulations to each of you and we have two that have so far one at the afsc level And that's mr. Darren Mitchell and The other is a team award for the expeditionary depot maintenance flight. So edmx great job And so again, thanks to uh for all of those folks who have hard work setting the bar And being great examples For the supervisors that have submitted. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and keep submitting Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much sir and um Just for sake of time what we're going to do is we're going to jump into our questions that were asked from our command from our commanders as well as directors and So this this particular portion We are going to just focus in some of the some of these questions that Many have posed and and the first one is halfway. We'll we'll pose to you many of Uh, we've heard your questions and they will see concerning OPM locality pay assessment. So there's a concern about OPM locality pay. Would you like to address that? Yeah, absolutely Um, I know this has been a very hot topic because we have a lot of folks, you know We see the housing going up uh in cost and so we're kind of asking those questions about, you know Are we going to see some form of locality increase here in the local area? So we did have a little bit of movement on this this week We had actually presented and when I say we I mean the 75th air base wing All of the leadership really on the base had presented to the federal salary council In 2020 a request to actually increase locality At that time, um, it was presented to the council chairperson and it was actually declined We were told to go back take a look at how we start using incentives and retention bonuses that are available to us And so we have done that we've done that through our STEM area We're looking at how we may be able to apply that into our Other areas such as, you know, our federal wage service But now, um after we had given that last, I guess, uh presentation the chairman resigned five days after that happened So they had been waiting for a new chairman to be appointed to this federal salary council And the person was actually appointed just day before yesterday So we have not actually been able to go back to the federal salary council again to Yes present our case and so that is actually now that we have a council person in place We will be able to take that to the chair. So that will be on the schedule And then the next piece of this is that we really have gotten a lot of support from our local delegates here So I would say that, you know, you have a local congressman. You have a, you know, local senators Please do not, you know, feel like you can't go to those folks because they are actually on our side And they are also helping to try and push some of this forward with our, um, you know, with this salary rate increase So hopefully we'll see some good movement soon and we'll keep you apprised of everything that happens in the future with this Awesome. Awesome. Moe money. Moe money, right? Moe money. Moe money There's another question here for you and I'm just going to read the question as it's written and so Supervisors are concerned about The impact or the impact the central hiring office is having on our ability to hire new college graduates We have requested a total of eight graduates and have not received any We're told even graduates who specifically request to join our team Will not definitely get assigned to our team. So that was the question and I think around the central hiring So can you elaborate? Absolutely again. Um, so central hiring is something that is fairly new but really it was an effort to Get at some of the I think things that we were seeing in terms of I guess favoritism and nepotism And so what the biggest change that happened with central hiring is that now the selecting official So basically the supervisor that's hiring that person is no longer on the panel that actually goes out and does that And it's a very targeted area. These are for only folks that are really coming in brand new to the organization from outside And we're really trying to you know, get that program nailed down So in an effort to do that, I think the majority of our students are really in our software area And so we have put together some new I guess directions and really to alleviate some of that miscommunication So that we can get folks Provide information to the SMEs that are going to these hiring events So that they can now say hey Which area do you want to go to? Which skills are you looking for and we will be working hand in hand with the swag group to make sure that we are now Have that stern communication so that we can really get the right folks in the right place So hopefully you should see some of that alleviated Awesome. So so sometimes it may be a little slow, but sometimes slow is fast and fast is slow Correct and we implement new programs. It's a little rocky, but I think we are you know, we have it pretty well under control now Awesome. All right And moving on to question three and we we're we're running out of time. So we are we're going to yes, sir Okay, the cameras actually turn off right at the what with in one minute Okay, and so sir, um, I'll I'll just turn it over to you to you for any comments that you might have and then we will Wrap things up for today. Okay. Well, I apologize for not getting to to all of our questions today Definitely appreciate folks taking the time to attend. I wanted to share quickly three things with you One is we have lost teammates through co vid. And so teammates family members The chapel is hosting a sunset memorial service on the 1st of june at sunset At the pond near teal up to remember those that we have lost And to basically gather as a community So we'll be sending emails and more details out as we get closer to that Diox survey. Thanks to all those who participated Thanks, especially to those who wrote comments in for us your group leadership are looking at that now And I am right around the corner to take a look and we'll share that with you at the next one in in the summer town hall And so I'll just end right there and thank you for your time Your attention and it definitely appreciate all the work that you do out here


A fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, caused by an apparent drone strike, has been extinguished, the Moscow-installed governor there said, on April 29. Open fire was extinguished in an area of 1,000 square meters, Mikhail Razboziev said on the Telegram messaging app. Earlier he said no one was injured and according to preliminary information, the depot was hit by two drones. Sergei Aksyanov, the Russian-appointed head of Crimea, said on Telegram that air defense and electronic warfare forces on Saturday shot down two drones over the Crimean Peninsula. There are no casualties or destruction, he said. Sevastopol, on the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has come under repeated air attacks since Russia sent its troops to the country as a whole in February 2022.


Poloximers are block copolymers composed of poly, ethylene oxide, PEO, and poly, propylene oxide, PPO. They have amphiphilic characteristics and are used in a variety of applications such as solubilizing compounds, stabilizing drugs, and providing physiologically relevant properties. Additionally, they are used as excipients in pharmaceuticals due to their low toxicity. Challenges faced in nanomedicine include transporting in soluble drugs throughout the body and delivering them to specific locations. Poloximers offer potential solutions to these problems through their rich phase behavior, which includes micelles, hydrogels, liotropic liquid crystals, and more. These properties make them suitable for a wide range of processing techniques, including direct solubilization, solvent displacement, emulsification, and preparation of kinetically frozen particles. Poloximers are thus highly versatile and can be used to create a variety of products, including nano-encapsulated drugs. This article was authored by Andrew M. Badradi and Pascalis Alexandridis.