Photo By Senior Airman Kasey Zickmund | Staff Sgt. Lindsay Matthews (right), 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron...... read more read more
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Warriors worldwide, to the tune of 600-700 on average each day — from U.S. bases around the globe, Coalition partners, and contractors and civilians who serve alongside them — are, for the most part, completely disinterested in what these folks have to say and down right annoyed to have to put up with them.
Welcome to the world of a PERSCO troop who works at an undisclosed Southwest Asia location, in the largest of 19 PERSCO units in the AOR.
"People come through here from all around the world, for all kinds of reasons," said Senior Airman Robert Harms, 379th Expeditionary Personnel Support for Contingency Operations reception control center staff member, deployed from Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. Most of them are travelling to or from the States, deploying to or re-deploying from Iraq or Afghanistan, but they also take care of people traveling around the AOR for other reasons, such as emergency leave or R&R, he said.
"Usually, they've been traveling for 20 hours or more. They're tired and grouchy, and the last thing they want to do is process paperwork or listen to briefings," Harms, a Freemont, Neb., native added. "But before they can do anything else, we must first, and most importantly, make sure we have everyone accounted for, then immigrated into the country and briefed on base policies and host nation laws."
Yet, being responsible for 100 percent accountability of everybody who comes in and goes out of the AOR, via this part of Southwest Asia, is a job neither he, nor any of his teammates, were taught in technical school or at their home stations.
"To do our jobs here, specialized training is required," said Senior Airman Kaitlin Humphrey, PERSCO night shift manning operator, a Newark, Ohio, native deployed from Columbus AFB, Miss. "At home, I make IDs. Here, I do a lot more than that, basically processing requests coming from home stations — mostly different kinds of waivers. It's more complex, because I have to deal with a lot of information I don't deal with at my home station."
Harms said his people processing job here is also unlike what he does at his home station.
"There, I work in an office setting, doing career development, outbound assignments, and retirements and separations," he said. "Here, my job gets me outside, talking with a lot of different people."
Beside processing passengers, there's a lot of behind the scenes work going on.
"As PERSCO, our primary functions are personnel accountability and casualty notification, but our duties are so diverse it would be impossible to list them all," said Senior Master Sgt. Lisa Casteel, 379th EFSS PERSCO chief. "Some things we take care of, people rarely see, like emergency leaves, AOR travel requests, re-enlistments, early return, delayed reporting and replacement requests — we make certain commanders have the people they need to complete their mission.
"As personnel, being one of few career fields with a deployed mission that's totally different than at home, we don't often have the opportunity to perform our wartime mission," she said. "So, we're breaking new ground every day. It's an exciting time for all of us."
For one technical sergeant in the squadron, his most ground breaking and exciting day in PERSCO is one he said he'll never forget.
"Among that day's passengers were 10 emergency leaves, 80 people going on R&R and nine Fallen Warriors," said Tech. Sgt. Thomas Harden, 379th EFSS PERSCO day shift NCOIC, deployed from Randolph AFB, Texas. "It turned out one of the emergency leave members we were processing was the spouse of one of the Fallen Warriors going home."
Emergency leave members always take priority, said the sergeant, "but that day, I cared about nothing else but getting them out of here and on their way."
Humphrey said she also does whatever she can to assist in emergencies and she finds it difficult when she's in a position where her hands are tied.
One man who was here on emergency leave had missed his shuttle to the aircraft and wanted transportation help getting off base, the Airman said. "I felt helpless, like when you have a sick child and can't do anything. But, we just couldn't do what he wanted."
While not every shift is as intense and demanding on the troops as these, with today's operations tempo, their breaks are fewer and farther between than ever.
"When we arrived here, the movement of U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan had already begun, so our team had to hit the ground running," said Casteel. "The surge has required this young PERSCO team to assume far greater responsibility than previous teams. I think they've proven they're up to any challenge."
| Date Taken: | 01.09.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 01.09.2010 07:35 |
| Story ID: | 43595 |
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| Web Views: | 292 |
| Downloads: | 230 |
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