AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar -- Airman 1st Class Daniele Kolletzki promoted to senior airman during a ceremony Feb. 22, 2021, at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
Such a young Airman faces great responsibility with the job she executes every day as a command post controller with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Command Post at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
The office is on a twelve-hour shift cycle with both day and night shifts. She considers this to be the most demanding part of the job.
Command post is the hub of “a lot of reporting of what goes on around the base.” The office also follows the flight of any 379th AEW aircraft from takeoff to landing at Al Udeid AB. They announce mass notifications over the “giant voice” base-wide speaker system and coordinate with other agencies for any notifications that are sent out throughout the day.
“Some people think the command post is basically just the giant voice system,” Kolletzki explained. “And that's kind of all they think we do. We work with a lot of agencies, and it’s kind of the opposite for us – we understand the basis of what a lot of people on base do.”
However, the flip side of her job is a lot of the information she has circulates at a higher level. They are aware of everything happening on base, and they are responsible for disseminating that information to commanders.
“It’s dependent on which kind of command post you're in,” she clarified. “At my home station, we're directly under the commander, so we see him a lot and I speak with him directly a lot. It's a little different here, but it’s the same in that lower enlisted still speak with higher operating officers.”
For Kolletzki, working at Al Udeid AB is also the same in the sense she works for a wing command post, but also different from working at her home station of Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Having only a seven-person team at Al Udeid AB introduces her to a group of people she never would have met otherwise.
“I'm sitting shift with a chief,” she explained. “That’s not something that I would typically do at Ramstein, and it's just cool to work with people of all different backgrounds. We have Guard, we have active duty and we have people stationed from different places.”
Kolletzki is studying for her degree in history. Her interest in learning about other people goes hand in hand with her interest in learning about the world.
“Travel plays a huge part in my Air Force career,” she said. “It allowed me to move to two different continents between my duty station in Germany and my deployment here, which I think has been an amazing experience. Before the pandemic, I was able to explore a lot, and that’s what I am hoping to do out here as well.”