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Silent trackers within the Air Force: DCAPES

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Bryan Swink
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Editor's Note: This is part two of a three part series on the 379 EFSS/PERSCO team

Whether you're just arriving or about to depart from Southwest Asia, one thing remains the same; the Personnel Support for Contingency Operations team will process and track you.

Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments is the Air Force's classified database for planning and executing deployments, contingency operations, emergency actions and everything else that has to do with moving people and equipment in support of Air Force operations worldwide.

For the 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron PERSCO team, DCAPES primarily provides the Air Force with end-to-end personnel accountability in one database and gives PERSCO members the ability to monitor the duty status of all deployed Airmen throughout the world.

The four-person team within PERSCO works around the clock to ensure everyone who arrives and departs this base, regardless of their length of stay, is accounted for.

"We will process approximately 30,000 service members during our six-month rotation," said Senior Airman Deltron McRae, 379th EFSS DCAPES operator, stationed at Pope Airfield, N.C. "That number includes not only people here on a four- or six-month deployment, but also anyone who is in transient status waiting to forward deploy."

Along with ensuring base-wide accountability, the DCAPES team acts as the liaison between service members and their home station.

The team tracks deviations as far as deployment waivers, delayed reporting, early releases and skill-level waivers. The night-shift team works with home-station representatives while the day-shift team works with unit first sergeants and unit deployment managers to make sure whatever issues a service member may experience is resolved quickly and efficiently.

"We are basically the middle men between the (area of responsibility) and home station," said Staff Sgt. Brian Cooper, 379th EFSS PERSCO permanent party/manning noncommissioned officer in charge, stationed at Maxwell Ala. "We don't make any updates or changes in the system, we just help facilitate the communication between both parties."

Being a part of the DCAPES team isn't a job that requires a lot of social interaction or one that is recognized by any one of the thousands of people who come to this base, but that's alright with this team.

"We are the part of the PERSCO team who are constantly behind the closed door and that's fine by me," said McRae. "It's a self rewarding job and at the end of the day we know we are doing the right thing so the mission can continue."