As the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill Inspector General, my primary job is to act as an extension of [Maj. Gen. Mark McDonald, Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill] commanding general's eyes, ears, voice and conscience.

My staff executes this role through four primary functions: assistance, teaching and training, inspections and investigations.

Even though all four of our functions are important, assistance is how we are usually most helpful to commands, Soldiers, family member, Department of the Army civilian employees, retirees and other civilians. This can be as simple as calling the IG for a reference on how to conduct some type of procedure or as complicated as requesting help with a pay problem.

When in doubt, it is always a good idea to contact the IG to ask for our assistance. Anyone can contact the IG as long as the matter is Army related. No one can keep you from contacting the IG as doing so is a violation of the law.

"Oh brother, here comes the IG. What did we do wrong now?"

That's the reception the inspector general usually gets when he or she calls or visits a commander, but in reality the IG is not in the business of getting commanders and leaders into trouble. In fact, the opposite is true in that our goal is to empower leadership by providing the necessary tools and knowledge to take proper action.

During the coming weeks we ask that you submit any general questions you have to the IG e-mail address at: usarmy.sill.fcoe.mbx.fort-sill-inspector-general@mail.mil.

As a part of this bi-weekly article, we will provide answers to those questions, as well as convey general information on topics of interest to our readers.

The Office of the Inspector General is at 1643 Randolph Road next to Nye Library. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays except for regularly scheduled training and federal holidays. Our contact numbers are 442-3109/3224 or you may e-mail us at the address listed above. If you call during non-duty hours, you may leave a voicemail and we will return your call the next duty day. Any contact made to our office can be made anonymously, but it may be more difficult to address issues without your contact information.

We look forward to receiving your questions and assisting you in whatever way we can.