PersCo team crucial in deployed roll call
Released: March 18, 2003
By Tech. Sgt. Jason Tudor
457th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
ROYAL
AIR FORCE FAIRFORD, England (USAFENS) --
It's
time to take the roll call. However, playing hooky from this attendance list
will mean more than a mark in a teacher's book. It could mean a lost mission,
a lost battle or worse.
Just
like teachers taking roll of students across the U.S. each morning, a
specialized team tallies the hundreds newly assigned here, ensuring the deployed
commander has the airmen he needs to get mission done.
The
Personnel Support for Contingency Operations team set up shop with the 457th Air
Expeditionary Group here just before more than 1,000 airmen touched down at this
forward-based location. The team is
responsible for completing all personnel actions required to support deployed
Air Force commanders.
The
"PersCo" team deploys with a specialized laptop-computer system called the
Manpower and Personnel Module - Base Level. With a little office space and a
network connection, the team can link into the worldwide personnel system that
connects to hundreds of installations across the globe.
It
does this first by accounting for all airmen and DOD civilians deployed at this
location. In effect, it takes roll, and has done so each day since it arrived,
for the commander. The only difference -- instead of 30 students in a room,
there are 1,000 warriors scattered over hundreds of acres.
As
the team provides the strength numbers to the local commander, those numbers
move upstream. Ultimately, on a classified PowerPoint slide somewhere in
theater, Fairford's numbers are offered to U.S. Central Command leaders -- and
that's where PersCo here makes its money.
The four-person team, led by Master Sgt. Wayne Suber, builds the in-processing line and also ensures deploying airmen have all the required paperwork needed to move in theater. Suber said it's important to make this process quick.
"Speed
counts," he said. "Ultimately, we're here to take care of people and give
top-notch service."
Suber
said those two acts helped get more than 400 people into a warm bed and get them
their first hot meal following a six-hour flight here. It also allowed him to
provide accurate troop strength numbers to the commander.
The
bulk of that in-processing work was done as airmen got off chartered flights.
More than 500 weary, tired travelers from two flights made their way through a
line of agencies like the judge advocate, lodging, the chaplain, and others set
up in a hangar here. For each lot of warriors, a deployment leader carried a
raft of paperwork.
Some
airmen traveled here by themselves or with one or two others. Suber's team
offered personal service to those "one-sie and two-sies," ensuring he got
the paperwork and they got into necessary briefings to be part of the Fairford
team.
That
said, not all went as smoothly as the team would have liked. In the course of
the two hours getting the first 180 airmen through the in-processing line, Suber
and his crew "worked out the bugs from the first time." That enabled the
team to move 219 airmen through in less than two hours.
Supply
troop Staff Sgt. Ryan Brugman was one of those 180. Brugman said he spent less
than an hour in-processing and appreciated the fast service.
"There
was no standing around," Brugman said. "It went very quick, faster than when
we left our home station. They were prepared."
In
addition to reception processing, the PersCo team also becomes a smaller version
of a wing-level military-personnel flight. They'll help airmen create accurate
emergency data, spouses back home get ID cards, process assignments, help create
hundreds of letters of evaluation and more.
RAF
Fairford PersCo team member, Staff Sgt. Catina Lane, hawks the numbers with
Suber. Although she "was freezing" as troops processed through the hangar,
Lane said she understood that her work provided a crucial component for the
combatant commander here.
"If
it's not right, we find the way to make it right," said Lane, who's on her
first deployment. She said now the team is bedding down for the long haul,
ordering supplies and getting necessary continuity in place when she and others
swap out. "We definitely have our moments."
Suber
said he believes his team has already created some shining moments, keeping this
deployed team ready.
"These guys are warriors in every sense of the word," the team chief said. "They do the job and do it well. They've already made a positive impact and it shows."
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