More than just a voice

Photo By Master Sgt. Beatrice Brown | Staff Sgt. Ben, structural craftsman, performs an operational radio check with various base emergency agencies at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Feb. 3, 2015. Command post Airmen are the eyes and ears of the base and have their hands in just about everything on base from flight following to emergency management. Ben is temporarily filling in at the command post during a manning shortfall due to experience he had as a prior command post controller three and a half years ago. Ben is currently deployed from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Marie Brown)  

(UNDISCLOSED LOCATION)

02.03.2015

Story by Tech. Sgt. Beatrice Brown 

380th Air Expeditionary Wing

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION -- There is more to the “giant voice” than one might think. Fortunately, you don’t have to travel all the way to Oz to find the true identity of the Airman behind the curtain, or in this case, behind the locked door.

Although tasks vary from base to base, Command Post Airmen are responsible for ensuring the flow of information and they are essential to making sure the base operates smoothly and effectively.

“We are the eyes and ears of the base,” said Senior Master Sgt. Chris, Command Post superintendent. “We got our hands in just about everything on base from flight tracking to emergency management.”

Command post Airmen have a plethora of duties and responsibilities. They connect operators and maintainers, monitor missile defense alerts and reporting safety condition changes.

“We keep the commanders informed of anything major happening on-base,” said Tech. Sgt. Melanie, NCO in-charge, console operations. “We also make sure that we are tracking aircraft in and out. Making sure leadership is informed, these are our main duties here.”

The command post stays in contact with aircrews for take-off and at 30 minutes out for arrival until they block in to relay information between the maintenance operations center and pilot.

“While we are in contact with the pilot, we get their maintenance status and landing fuel and we pass that information to the MOC,” said Melanie. “We keep the aircraft and MOC connected until they can speak on the ground.”

There is never a dull moment for the Airmen working in the command post.

“Some days you are sitting back and everything is going smoothly,” said Melanie, currently deployed from Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., and a native of Pensacola, Fla. “The next day you have five diverts in, you are running all over the place informing commanders of aircraft coming in, and calling other command posts to find out how many more are coming and letting them know that their aircraft came in safely. We are calling the Combined Air Operations Center depending on the type of aircraft and coordinating for all the crews to get them where they need to go. Every day is something new.”

Another, more familiar responsibility of the command post includes communicating with everyone on base through the use of the giant voice or through the AtHoc notification system.

The AtHoc notification system controls the messages that pop up on computers, alerting users of weather conditions such as high winds, heavy rains, suspicious packages or other significant events.

“We have a checklist that dictates if a situation would warrant us to use AtHoc, the giant voice or both,” said Melanie.

Whenever there is an event that requires an immediate response, the command post has the resources at their disposal to contact the appropriate agencies quickly.

“An emergency operation center is a dormant function that isn’t always immediately available,” said Chris, currently deployed from Cannon AFB, N.M., and a native of Memphis, Tenn. “At the request of an incident commander, Mission Support Group commander or wing commander, we initiate the recall for the EOC to get all the support rolls in place to make sure we can mitigate an emergency in a timely manner.”

In the command post world, if everything is going right you will hardly know that they are even doing anything. There is so much information flowing in and out of there you don’t even realize it is all happening unless something gets messed up.

“Airmen working in the command post know that they are in a career field that is zero error and that they are kind of working under a microscope,” said Chris. “We expect a whole lot out of them. They don’t get a lot of grace period with mistakes and stuff like that other Airmen might get.”

• Date Taken: 02.03.2015
• Date Posted: 02.06.2015 04:43
• Story ID: 153737
• Location: (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION)