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Deployed Reserve and Guard provide 'people' services in Southwest Asia

  • Published
  • By Maj. Ann Knabe
  • 379 Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
In any given Air Expeditionary Force rotation, Guard and Reserve members provide support roles in Personnel Support in Contingency Operations teams around the AOR.

However, this rotation, Reserve component service members comprise more than 95 percent of the 379th PERSCO team in Southwest Asia.

“We’re not sure why it happened this way,” said Senior Master Sgt. Gary Yonchak, 379th PERSCO superintendent and first sergeant. “But, it’s really neat to see us all coming together under one roof, getting the mission done.”

A reservist from the 910th Mission Support Flight based at Youngstown Air Reserve Base, Ohio, Sergeant Yonchak volunteered for a second rotation in the AOR. He said about half of his troops here never deployed out of the U.S. prior to their tour of duty here.

“The (Reserve component) volunteers have the same qualifications as active duty, but they also bring unique assets to the fight,” he said. “We have a wealth of experience and depth in our jobs. Many of our folks have completed 15 to 20 years of service.”

With 34 years of service himself, Sergeant Yonchak represents the more experienced reservists. At the other end of the spectrum is Airman 1st Class Andrena Cleek, also from Youngstown ARS, who just reached 18-months in service.

Just as their years in service vary, so do the 379th PERSCO servicemembers’ backgrounds.

Master Sgt. Becky Napierala, a member of the 120th Fighter Wing Air National Guard, Great Falls, Mont., works full time for the U.S. Postal Service. She uses her customer service skills when dealing with thousands of people transferring through Southwest Asia. In the past, she’s deployed to Panama, Saudi Arabia and a number of different stateside bases. Sergeant Napierala thinks there’s a distinct advantage in having Reserve component and active duty mixed in one deployed PERSCO team.

“We all learn different ways of doing things,” she said. “We pick up best practices, put them in place here and take them back to our home units.”

The team responsibilities are similar to that of any deployed PERSCO unit. The team’s mission is simple: account for the whereabouts of people deployed and incoming transients. This includes arrivals, forward deployments and returns home. If any base personnel go to Iraq, Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa for temporary duty, PERSCO tracks them.

“We’re the eyes and the ears for the wing commander when it comes to people,” said Sergeant Yonchak. “Sometimes it gets downright crazy, like when we experience a surge of transients during a rotational swap. We had aircraft coming and going with passengers around the clock. In one week’s timeframe, we met, greeted and informed thousands of people.”

Since the first of the year, PERSCO has processed more than 15,000 people. The team works two shifts, keeping the processing area staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All ranks help with the customer processing, and Reserve, Guard and active-duty servicemembers frequently overlap during shifts to ensure full PERSCO coverage.

“We have a distinct advantage working with people coming from different units and different civilian jobs,” said Senior Airman Sabrina Harden, a Guard member with the 141st Air Refueling Wing, Wash., who deployed for her first AEF.

“The 379th PERSCO team represents a diverse bag of talents from every sector of life. That’s what makes us work so well together as a team, and work well with the people we serve.”