Chief Master Sergeant Robert Dandridge

CMSgt Dandridge has served over 15 years with the CAP. He brings a unique perspective to his current role and is energized to bring together people and ideas to act as a catalyst of positive change. His introduction to innovation began forty years ago working in environmental fields when he was selected to serve as an ICBM non-technical training monitor in North Dakota. He developed a hands-on respirator training program which greatly enhanced the safety of personnel in missile maintenance. By 1984, he developed McGuire Air Force Base Form 49, which allowed for a thorough record log of man-hours, poisons used, and survey hours to document employee safety. When vermin continually set off alarms in the Weapons Storage Area in Belgium, he innovated and installed a simple and cost-effective method of sealing igloo entrance doors, which eliminated alarm activations.  By 1991, he implemented a more efficient, effective, and safer method of herbicide work for the Travis Air Force Base railroad tracks by using a locomotive instead of a tractor to reduce shop workload. He published Scott Air Force Base's first Operating Instruction for the HAZMAT Pharmacy support, providing the first-ever procedures for cradle-to-grave operational handling and disposition of all HAZMAT received on base, thus-significantly improving compliance and reduced the potential of environmental damage and fines. In Japan, he innovated and instructed a Yokota Air Base Hazardous Waste Management course, with over 500 personnel trained, customizing each module to meet specific requirements of course attendees and saved over $75K in temporary duty funds.

His favorite Innovation Memory: Thinking outside the box, he contracted the use of a Navy bombing range construction project in Nevada, to assess Air Force engineers' team capabilities, saving tens of thousands of dollars for the Navy while providing a realistic Operational Readiness Inspection.

Innovation inspiration: The history of the USAF is a history of Innovation. General Mark Welsh