MSgt Theodore Holliger is a current AFIT master’s student working towards a degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. He joined the Air Force in November of 2002 to serve his country but also for stability and to learn a trade. He started his AF career as a Communications Navigation Technician on the C-17 airframe. He progressed into a series of supervisory roles and served as an assistant First Shirt and section chief.
Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, MSgt Holliger is married and has two children. His wife separated from the AF to care for their family. Holliger feels he owes it to his wife to truly succeed in his AF career because it’s also for her. “She loved her job and was a rock star as a junior enlisted airman - she sacrificed a lot for our family.”
In 2015, Holliger earned a graduate degree in Human Resources Development. “I had a lot of soft skills with my first master’s degree and going to AFIT has been a great opportunity to broaden my technical skills.”
Enlisted airmen bring a unique perspective to the classroom at AFIT. Typically, they are the only enlisted member in the class and many of their classmates are junior officers – several of whom reported to AFIT as their first duty assignment. It is a mix that brings richness to the learning environment. “In most cases, I have a lot more operational time than others in the cohort. My perception is forged through the experience that I bring and allows me to apply explicit examples to help clarify the concept we are learning. In addition, I believe that an enlisted perspective is extremely import for commissioned officers to understand as they lead and manage. I am able to help explain how policies and messages will be perceived by the lower ranks.”
During his time at AFIT MSgt Holliger has been challenged to develop critical thinking skills. “It’s been hard, but I found very quickly that the struggle was the same across all students - enlisted and officers. The envelope that the professors try to push for critical thinking is equally difficult for everyone. It equalizes the students because you share a common bond of the struggle. We hear a lot that the pain in your head is learning. It doesn’t take very long for a cohort of enlisted, officers, and all backgrounds of demographics and ethnicities to build a strong bond and come together as a resource where we rely on each other for support regardless of rank to help each other get through the program.”
As part of his thesis research, MSgt Holliger is using text mining techniques to identify common product or service themes across individual contracts. Those themes are used to group contracts into categories with the goal of a contract manager being responsible for said category. “The data set that I am working with has about 107 thousand rows and 148 variables. It is a “big data” problem that requires the power of text mining to solve. It is tough to manage all of those lines individually, so I am working to develop similar contract categories that will help to reduce redundant contracts and leverage the Air Force’s purchasing power thereby reducing costs,” explained Holliger. “It’s pretty exciting to know that what you are doing has the potential to have an immediate enterprise-wide, operational impact.”
“AFIT teaches you to think critically,” said Holliger. “I don’t know where my education will take me, but I do know that no matter where I go, I will be prepared to offer solutions that are viable and defensible to leadership. In my opinion, that is where the enlisted force should be focused. Solutions brought to decision makers need to be sound - based on objective data, not on emotion or opinion. Wherever I go, I will be prepared to contribute in that manner.”
