Silver Flag trains Support Airmen

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Lauren Douglas
  • 94th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga. --  Approximately 10 Airmen from several units across the Air Force and Air Force Reserve participated in the 622nd Force Support Silver Flag contingency operations training exercise Jan. 23 through 28 here.

The Silver Flag training facility is responsible for educating students in classroom and field training environments. The instructors gave detailed instructions and guided students to success in every aspect of support service.

Technical Sgt. Latoya Patterson, 622nd Civil Engineer Group Force Support Silver Flag training instructor, gave students hands-on, real-world demonstrations of tent structures and equipment in the FSSF field training facility.

“Helping and caring for others is one of the most important parts of our job,” said Patterson.

Throughout the training week, students spent time learning about the physical set up for lodging and food service tent structures. Other Airmen focused on computer systems and accountability for maintaining deployed personnel. Force Support career fields cover a spectrum of skills and services that are vital to sustaining personnel during deployment, as well as home base operation.

The training provides practice in a field environment so students are prepared for deployment responsibilities before deploying, said Tech. Sgt. Emily Ferguson, FSSF training instructor.

“My favorite part is seeing the students progress throughout the week,” said Ferguson. “I really like the hands-on shelter portion.”

Especially in a deployed environment, food service is important to the everyday mission, Patterson said. The Force Support Airmen construct a single palletized expeditionary kitchen. The SPEK is where food is prepared and served. They also have a field sanitation unit (a mobile temperature-controlled sink) to cleanse and sanitize kitchenware to keep an inspection-ready facility where Airmen are proud to eat.

“We are in charge of food operations, setting up the SPEK tents, the lodging tents; basically everything for deployment set up for field operations,” said Staff Sgt. Carlos Morales, 366th Force Support Squadron food service shift leader.

“This is the best Silver Flag in the Air Force,” said Morales. “This training literally saved my skin. We work with really hot water in the SPEK.”

There are several aspects to FS. Another entity is PERSCO, personnel support for contingency operations.

The three main functions of PERSCO Airmen are personnel accountability, casualty reporting and reach-back support for personnel actions.

“We are responsible for total force accountability in a deployed environment or during deployment exercises,” said Tech. Sgt. Shea McMillan, 622nd CEG PERSCO instructor and support staff. “Dobbins is different from all the other Silver Flag sites. We actually train and let students execute the mission.”

McMillan showed FS members how to use computer systems to take total force accountability by receiving and sending off members from a deployed location, including casualties. Although accountability of all personnel here is their top priority, PERSCO Airmen also assist service members with customs and immigrations processing, process Common Access Card replacements, coordinate with home stations to obtain reenlistment paperwork, and process emergency leave requests.

“We have the opportunity to develop a plan and execute that plan in a realistic training environment,” said PERSCO student Master Sgt. Anthony Hoile, 178th Wing, Springfield, Ohio personnel systems manager and PERSCO team chief. “We come up with a plan to create a base, create service member events and recreational activities.”

Force Support Airmen like Airman 1st Class Gina Discipio, 628th FSS customer support apprentice, are responsible for generating reports, making member, civilian and spouse IDs, as well as gaining and in-processing new members.

“I like that I get to see both sides of a deployment and how it affects military members and their families,” said Discipio. “I also like working with older, retired people because they like to give me life advice, and they always say ‘stay in the military.’”

With all the training and implementation that FS executes, there are very few things that the Dobbins Silver Flag staff considers unfavorable.

“I don’t really have a least favorite part,” said Ferguson. “I would say working in inclement weather is the only thing that is a bit challenging.”

“One of the hardest things is that sometimes we can be unappreciated,” Patterson explained. “Sometimes, people don’t really know how much goes into doing a job like this.”

“I have nothing to complain about. Circuit training was hard,” Hoile said with a smile, about the workout the group participated in that morning.
Instructors and students, alike, had only positive opinions of the FS training.

“It’s very realistic, hands-on training that you can’t obtain at your home station,” added Hoile.

“The training here at this base gives more detail to what we should know,” said Morales. “We get real world application and I’m always excited to come here.”