PSRW: Luke Pliakis

CLEVELAND, OH, UNITED STATES

05.06.2020

Story by Anthony Hardman 

Defense Finance and Accounting Service

Two months into his mission, Luke Pliakis, a civilian budget analyst on loan from DFAS to U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFORA), was walking into his office when an explosion went off about 500 meters from his base in Kabul. When the second bomb went off as he was hunkered down trying to calm a scared colleague, he realized for the first time that he was in a dangerous environment.

Ten years before his journey to Afghanistan began, Pliakis didn't know how dangerous and exciting his career in finance would become. He joined DFAS when Retired and Annuitant Pay was insourced from Lockheed Martin. That's when he first learned about opportunities for government employees to serve overseas.

"Pretty much from the first day of joining the government, I wanted to go over there and do something to serve my country," Pliakis said.

Pliakis updated and submitted his resume regularly to the DoD Expeditionary Civilian program on the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) website. Still, it took seven long years before he was offered a job.

"I had been applying since 2010 for a position like this and when it came, I didn't even hesitate to say yes immediately," Pliakis said. "There was no way I was going to say no to this – it's something I've wanted for so long I could not pass on it."

Pliakis recalled that his father and sister were not very happy with his decision. His father is a Vietnam veteran and didn't want him to experience that environment, and his sister was scared for him.

Despite their objections, Pliakis felt it was the right thing to do, so, March 2, 2018, he left Cleveland for two weeks of training at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana. There, he learned about the mission, qualified with an M9 handgun and left on a Sunday at 7 a.m. Roughly 89 hours later, he arrived at Camp Resolute Support Headquarters (HQRS) in Kabul, located near the U.S. embassy.

During the first year, Pliakis worked as a budget analyst for Operation Resolute Support, a NATO-led train, advise and assist mission. His primary responsibility was to assist the Ministry of Finance for Afghanistan with facilitating payments and resolving payment issues for Afghan forces.

Issues came in locally and from outskirt Train Advise Assist Commands (TAACs), which directly support four of the six Afghan National Army Corps throughout the country. Pliakis described working with TACC locations as challenging because they could be located in the middle of nowhere with no internet and possibly no phone. It was his job to work with English speaking TACC advisers to figure out who the payees were, what the issue was and how to resolve it.

A lot of his job was problem-solving. It could be filling in missing information or fixing errors that often happened because in the primary language of Dari, they write right to left.

"Sometimes it's just as simple as figuring out a birthday, or a name. Also, their calendar is different. So, if they input something with the date that they're used to, when you translate that to ours it says they were born in the 1300s. That brings up a red flag and they might not get paid."

Pliakis' tour was only scheduled to last one year, but in January 2019, when he had the opportunity to extend for another year, he did. In the second year, he transferred to Resource Management – International Engagements, where he worked with Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan (CSTC-A).

He helped manage the funds that were being put into the Law and Order Trust Fund of Afghanistan (LOTFA) by CSTC-A. The LOTFA trust fund is a combination of funding from multiple partner countries that pays for the Afghan police force.

A highlight for Pliakis was working with people from coalition partner countries like Italy, Germany, Australia and England. He enjoyed going to meetings and seeing how delegates worked with one another. While working at Resource Management – International Engagements, Pliakis also secured travel to and from the meetings and made sure Afghan partners and foreign coalition members could enter the base.

When asked about challenges, Pliakis explained that being away from family was the hardest part for him.

"The second year was difficult. My uncle was in the hospital, in and out, and actually passed two weeks before I got home," Pliakis said. "I'm probably lucky in the fact that I didn't have a wife and kids. A lot of people had children who were not happy that dad or mom was away."

But, looking back, he wouldn't change his experience for anything.

"It was an adventure I got to have, and someone trusted me enough to let me have it, and I'm grateful for that beyond belief."

In fact, the experience meant so much to him that he joined the Air Force Reserve as an airman first class while he was over there. Soon he'll be leaving for nine months of basic training and technical school. When that's complete, he will return to DFAS where he's looking forward to applying what he's learned to his work in retired and annuitant pay.

When asked what public service means, Pliakis said that it's all about "working for the people."

"Being able to give something of yourself. It's not glorified to work for the government, but I enjoy it. I enjoy trying to make a difference and trying to make things better than when I first arrived."

• Date Taken: 05.06.2020
• Date Posted: 06.24.2020 10:26
• Story ID: 369788
• Location: CLEVELAND, OH, US
• Hometown: CLEVELAND, OH, US