Battalion S-1 Operates the ID Card Facility for all of Al-Asad Air Base, Iraq

Courtesy Photo | Spc. Pamela Williams, a Marshall Islands native, and Pfc. Natasha Ware, a Jersey City, N.J., native, both human resources specialists with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, pose for a photo at the ID card facility at Al Asad Air Base March 30. (Photo by: Spc. Maribel Granados)  

AL ASAD, IRAQ

03.30.2011

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Rob Barker 

29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

By: 1st Lt. Kristen Adams

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq – Sgt. 1st Class Roger Phillip, the identification card facility site security manager and human resources supervisor for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command and a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., assumed responsibility for managing the physical and operational security of the real-time, automated personal identification system workstations on base.

These workstations are used to update Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System information and to issue common access cards to service members from all branches of the U.S. military as well as Department of Defense contracted civilians.

Soldiers operating the ID card facility spent five days getting necessary DEERS and RAPIDS certifications and training on the CAC equipment before opening the facility. Because DEERS and RAPIDS operations are normally a brigade-level function, the facility’s team executes the CAC mission in addition to their battalion-level human resources responsibilities.

Spc. Pamela Williams, a native of the Marshall Islands, and Pfc. Natasha Ware, a native of Jersey City, N.J., both human resources specialists assigned to the battalion personnel section, provide customer services at the facility during the day shift.

“This is my first deployment and I am thankful because my work environment is much better than I expected,” Ware said.

Sgt. Roy Ramos, a human resources non-commissioned officer with HHC, 189th CSSB and a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, operates the facility during the night shift.

“I like supporting the soldiers and the mission on Al Asad,” Ramos said. “Even when I support the civilian contractors here, I know that I have given them what they need to go support the Soldiers, too. We are all working together toward a common goal and it is what I have been training to do.”

In the short time the 189th CSSB DEERS and RAPIDS team has been operating the ID card facility, nearly 400 CAC issues have been processed.

• Date Taken: 03.30.2011
• Date Posted: 04.24.2011 08:02
• Story ID: 69264
• Location: AL ASAD, IQ