Pride of the Pack: Staff Sgt. Beverly Mustipher

  • Published
  • By Capt. Shaun Bellamy
  • 8th Operations Support Squadron
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  Staff Sgt. Beverly Mustipher's dedication to the mission, outstanding professionalism and can-do attitude set the standard for a Non-Commissioned Officer. 

Her proven ability to get the job done made her an obvious choice to be selected as NCO in charge of the Aircrew Flight Equipment backshop, overseeing numerous time critical functions directly supporting the Wolfpack's ability to "Take the Fight North".

Sergeant Mustipher has taken every opportunity available to improve efficiency within her section allowing a staff of four to support the needs of two resident fighter squadrons and one expeditionary fighter squadron. Upon recognizing a need she designed an equipment tracking system improving communication between Plans, Egress, and AFE ensuring that no critical flight components were missed during maintenance inspection cycles. She personally oversaw the training of two individuals on packing ACES II seat kits while revamping the flightline quality assurance program guaranteeing 100 percent accountability of all flightline equipment. Following the arrival of Eielson AFB jets to Kunsan, she personally ran a complete inventory of all life support gear catching and correcting numerous critical deficiencies while preventing any mission delays. 

When not going above and beyond in the performance of her primary duties, sergeant Mustipher devoted time to improving herself by completing six credit hours towards her degree with Central Texas University College along with attending the NCO Professional Enhancement course preparing her for increased responsibilities. Sergeant Mustipher not only donated both time and money to stateside charities, but also found time to support Korean-American relations through visits to a local orphanage.

While Sergeant Mustipher consistently exceeds expectations, some of her recent accomplishments deserve specific recognition. 

Her professional demeanor and confidence when interacting with the PACAF IG inspector during the 8FW's 2008 UCI allowed her to successfully exhibit AFE backshop's capabilities, impressing the IG team so much so that AFE was selected as an Outstanding Team. More importantly, Sergeant Mustipher prevented a major real world OPSEC violation in the midst of the UCI through quick thinking and global situational awareness. 

When uniformed Korean nationals inspecting standard shop equipment requested a copy of the daily flying schedule, she immediately recognized it as an attempt to ascertain intel from the Critical Information List and intervened. After denying the request she obtained the national's credentials for security follow up and noted that the few documents produced were shoddily made and highly suspect. Aware of the gravity of the situation, Sergeant Mustipher immediately contacted Security Forces while making a copy of the potentially falsified credentials to turn over for follow up. After the Security Forces arrived and took control of the situation, she then met with OSI on the same day to ensure that she could provide the most accurate details to the occurrence as possible. 

Both OSI and the 8th Fighter Wing security manager lauded her quick thinking and recognition of a potential security risk which enabled her to break the chain before any OPSEC information could be obtained by outside sources. 

Sergeant Mustipher's contributions to the team, dedication to her job as well as the mission and textbook response to a critical incident make me proud to nominate her to be the next Pride of the Pack.