PERSCO: Keeping track of the ins and outs of troop movement

Published April 25, 2008
By Senior Airman Carolyn Viss
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The shuffling of duffle bags and backpacks belonging to more than 70 Airmen and civilian contractors echoes through the patio as the morning sun's rays start to push back the night's cover.

While some are nearing the end of their deployment to Southwest Asia and others are just beginning, one thing they have in common is they have all passed through the "gates" of the base: the Personnel Support for Contingency Operations.

At any given time, the PERSCO team of 20 active-duty and Air National Guard members is here to provide basic military personnel services in a deployed environment.

The team processed and accounted for more than 66,000 people this rotation and averages 250,000 transient, air crew, rotational and permanent party members each year, said Capt. Robert Bader, Jr., 379th Expeditionary Services Squadron PERSCO team chief, from Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

The PERSCO team's main task is to provide total force accountability for all U.S. personnel who are on contingency operations temporary duty here.

"We provide in-place support using a 'first-of-its-kind-in-the-AOR' desktop system capable of accessing and integrating plans and personnel information," Captain Bader said. "This gives commanders a view of the deployed forces within the AOR."

The team also provides assistance and reporting in the event of a casualty.

"Trying to account for an entire base, including Defense Department civilians, contractors, coalition forces, military members and transients stationed here, is quite an undertaking," he said. "However, we are all well trained and have exercised this scenario many times, so the team performs extremely well."

PERSCO members are also responsible for in-processing, out-processing, manning assistance (including early release and extensions), AOR travel requests, emergency leave requests, duty status reports, and more.

Airman 1st Class Ericka Powell, a 'people person' who loves to meet and talk to arriving members, said her job can be difficult too.

"Some people don't understand that the immigrations and customs rules are set by the host nation, but we'll try to help them out as much as we can," the first-time deployer said. "There's no changing rules we didn't set, and some people just don't understand that."

With the end of the current rotation and the beginning of a new one, the PERSCO team is ready for a new onslaught of customers.

"Our team is made up of some great professionals," said Captain Bader. "We've had two below the zone promotions and won five squadron level awards and one group-level award this rotation. We are ready."