NAVAL AIR STATION JOINT RESERVE BASE FORT WORTH, Texas -- The 301st Fighter Wing has a diverse array of Reserve Citizen Airmen from many different backgrounds and cultures. Master Sgt. Jason Almodovar, 301 FW Equal Opportunity Office senior enlisted leader, promotes an environment free from personal, social or institutional barriers that would prevent a wing member from rising to their highest potential.
Almodovar facilitates conflict resolution and ensures leaders understand their responsibility to address and eliminate unlawful discrimination and sexual harassment, while executing the 301 FW mission to train and deploy combat-ready Airmen.
“The mission comes first,” said Almodovar. “However, you cannot execute the mission without people. We need to take care of our people and ensure we provide an environment where everyone feels safe, valued, included and respected. Once those needs are met, we can focus on training and deploying combat ready airmen.”
“My duties include processing complaints, assisting in the resolution of conflict at the lowest level, providing mentorship, and guiding airmen towards applicable resources outside the EO realm.”
Almodovar joined the Army in 1996 and served six years as an avionics technician. There, he maintained and installed communication, navigation, and radar components onto Apache and Blackhawk helicopters.
“I left the Army in 2002,” said Almodovar. “I found that I missed the military, I missed the camaraderie and after some time, I decided to give the Air force a shot.”
In 2004, he joined the Air Force Reserve and the 301 FW Maintenance Squadron as an armament technician as a Traditional Reservist (TR). He performed unscheduled and scheduled maintenance on the bombs racks, missile launchers, and guns for the F-16 Fighting Falcon. He eventually became an Air Reserve Technician (ART) in 2007. In 2010, he became an EO collateral duty counselor for the 301 FW. His experience as a collateral duty counselor allowed him the opportunity to become a civilian EEO specialist at Sheppard AFB in 2019. Additionally, he transferred to the 301 FW EO office as a TR, promoted to Master Sgt. and became the EO senior enlisted leader.
An ART is a dual-role Reserve Citizen Airman who fulfills their Traditional Reservist (TR) commitment, one weekend a month and two weeks a year, while also working within the same unit every Monday through Friday to support the mission in a federal capacity.
“Early in my career, I serviced aircraft and EO is all about servicing people,” said Almodovar. “EO is about providing cultural awareness and educating members about the program and how to resolve conflict at the lowest level. I get immense satisfaction from helping our airmen.”
Outside of his day-to-day duties, Almodovar spends most of his time with his wife and three children.
“I have been married 18 years,” said Almodovar. “My oldest son is on the varsity basketball team, daughter runs cross country and my youngest son is going to join the debate team. So, my hobbies are playing basketball, attending track meets, and attending my son’s debates. They keep me super busy.”
Almodovar reflected on his Air Force career and his experience over the past two decades.
“I’ve been in the military for 25 years and the things I enjoy most is traveling, meeting new people and experiencing different cultures. The military has sent me to places I may have never visited on my own like South Korea, Germany, Afghanistan, Italy and Iraq. Traveling provided the opportunity to meet all types of people.”
Almodovar believes that embracing a culture of diversity and different perspectives is important within the 301st Fighter Wing.
“We all are uniquely different and have our own reason as to why we joined the military. That being said, our goal in the military is the same and that is to execute our mission, whatever it may be. We must embrace our differences because each one of us brings something to the table. Together, and only together, we can successfully complete our mission.”
The 301st Fighter Wing Equal Opportunity Office can be reached at 301FW.eo.workflow@us.af.mil or 817-782-1370. Cell phone 817-807-6979 AF Discrimination Hotline: 1-888-231-4058.