Pope Airman creates free 'Wingmanship' app

Published Oct. 24, 2013
By Marvin Krause
43rd Airlift Group

POPE ARMY AIRFIELD, FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Airmen at Pope now have a more convenient way to provide their location to local helping agencies, using a free Android mobile app.

Airman 1st Class Hwansung Kim, 43rd Logistics Readiness Squadron, created this app after receiving a contact card from his unit with local information to be hand-carried in his wallet.
"Wingmanship is a mobile application that provides functionality for calling a Wingman, finding a taxi, hotel, calling the base directory or an emergency contact," said Kim.

"Being a Wingman means helping others and I thought the card was outdated. The people of my generation don't necessarily carry cards, but they always have their phones with them. I thought the app would be more useful to people. The app will hopefully get younger Airmen to consider calling someone instead of drinking and driving," explained Kim.

The Wingmanship app is easy to use and provides Airmen and their families with quick access to important phone numbers and contact information that normally would have to be searched for or referenced from multiple sources.

He developed the app with Eclipse IDE for Java developers for Android mobile users.

"It took a few months to get the bugs and glitches worked out. I worked really hard on making sure this was a quality app that people would use," said Kim. "It takes merely seconds to get in-touch with a Wingman and only a few taps to find a taxi. With Wingmanship, the right information is only a few taps away.

One of the coolest features of the Wingmanship app is being able to pinpoint and see your exact location on your mobile phone and also send your location to others.

"Getting location information instantly, the ability to be at a destination of your choice as fast as possible or sending an SMS text with your exact location to one of your contacts are some features. The app has the ability to send your location to your Wingman allowing them to know where you are if you need a ride," said Kim.

One of Kim's coworkers, Senior Airman Michael Kimmel, 43rd LRS, uses the free app on his mobile phone.

"The Wingmanship app is a great resource. I used it the other weekend when I needed a ride home. It let me call whoever I needed to get in contact with and also text my location to them so they knew exactly where I was. Also, the directory in the app is a great resource to get a hold of the right people on base," explained Kimmel.

Kim started developing the app last June and finished it in August. He is currently developing an Apple version, a similar Wingman app for Buckley AFB, Colo., and Fort Bragg Soldiers called, "Battlebuddies", that he hopes to have finished later this year.

The Pope Army Airfield First Sergeants awarded Airman 1st Class Kim with their Diamond Sharp award, recognizing him in front of his peers for his innovation and leadership to assist fellow Pope Airmen and their families.