SOUTHWEST ASIA -- For her entire Air Force career, all five and a half years of it, Staff Sgt. Tiffany Hipple has worked in a place that is the "focal point" for the exchange of information on base during incidents, accidents and day-to-day operations.
"We are like an operations center," said Hipple, whose hometown is Williamsburg, Va. "The command post is essentially the information focal point for what's happening on base."
Hipple is a command post craftsman deployed to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Command Post at a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia. She is deployed from Air Force Material Command's Command Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
As a command post craftsman, her Air Force specialty job description shows she's required to be able to operate and monitor voice, data and alerting systems. She's also required to develop, maintain and initiate quick reaction checklists supporting situations such as suspected or actual sabotage, nuclear incidents, natural disasters, aircraft accidents or incidents and evacuations.
"Here, in our deployed command post, I get to coordinate with emergency responders if a situation arises and we regularly talk with wing leadership on a variety of matters," said Hipple, who is one of five Airmen working in the 380th AEW command post. "Every day, we talk with pilots who are out flying combat missions, with security forces and firefighters and with maintenance Airmen who orchestrate a ballet of activity on the flightline."
"It's a great job because you see how the whole Air Force works together," she said.
In job knowledge proficiency, a few of the items command post Airmen must maintain familiarity with include Air Force organization and administration, command post supporting data systems and reporting, automated data processing equipment use, emergency actions and directives, command weapon systems movement and transfer procedures, and encoding, decoding and authorization procedures used by command leaders.
"In an instant, if a call comes in, we can go from a quiet operations to a non-stop crisis response," Hipple said. "But that's why we are here -- to be that focal point when things have to get coordinated and a response is needed."
For the command post Airmen to be ready for anything, they are always open for business 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Hipple said she's proud to do her job at any time, but especially during a deployment.
"When I'm deployed, I feel like I'm doing my part as citizen of our country," Hipple said. "As a command post Airman, we are always part of the mission and here in the deployed environment I really feel like I am doing my part for the mission."
And as far as being an Air Force veteran, Hipple said "so far, so good."
"I like serving in the military," she said. "I came in to go to school and travel, but it all has been so much more than that."
The 380th AEW is comprised of four groups and 12 squadrons and the wing's deployed mission includes air refueling, surveillance and reconnaissance in support of overseas contingency operations in Southwest Asia. The wing supports operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.
| Date Taken: |
02.19.2010 |
| Date Posted: |
02.19.2010 01:18 |
| Story ID: |
45548 |
| Location: |
(UNDISCLOSED LOCATION) |
| Web Views: |
367 |
| Downloads: |
324 |
PUBLIC DOMAIN
This work, Wright-Patterson staff sergeant, Williamsburg native, spearheads command post support in Southwest Asia, by MSgt Jenifer Calhoun, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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