SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Good communication is key to mission success, which is apparent in how quickly many people's jobs grind to a halt when they lose access to a communications system they use on a daily basis. While most offices on base have an information system administrator nearby for simple problems, all of the more complicated issues go to one place - the 379th Expeditionary Communications Squadron communications focal point, or CFP.
"The communications focal point is responsible for the status of the base's communications capability as far as providing network, e-mail and file storage services," said Tech. Sgt. Casey Stone, CFP NCO in charge, who is deployed from Langley Air Force Base, Va. "We are also responsible for reporting the status of communications systems to leadership so they can make decisions based upon what network resources they have."
The focal point is broken up into two sections -- the help desk and the maintenance operations center. The help desk, which people more commonly associate with the CFP, is the first place client system administrators go when they have an issue they can't fix themselves.
"We field all the trouble calls that come in for communications here, anything to do with phones, computers, television, anything to do with communications at all," said Staff Sgt. Alicia Smalley. "We also do any basic, low-level trouble shooting that we can do from our desks. We do our best to troubleshoot first and then whatever we can't fix, we dispatch to the back shops and they take care of the rest."
While the job itself isn't much different than it would be at a home station, Sergeant Stone, a Portsmouth, Va., native, said the CFP here is busier than most others. Since the current rotation arrived, Airmen have handled approximately 1,300 calls per week on average.
"The first month or so in a rotation is always pretty tough with all the new requirements and system updates," Sergeant Stone said. "After that it starts to mellow out, but we're always busy. There's always something to report or update, or a phone call coming in from a customer."
One of the tasks that keep the help desk technicians the busiest is creating new user accounts for people just arriving to the base. The CFP has created more than 1,200 accounts in the past month.
Sergeant Smalley said one of the biggest challenges the technicians face is the majority of computer systems administrators are assigned the job as an additional duty, and haven't necessarily ever been a CSA before.
"Someone could be a cook or a flight mechanic and this would be an additional duty," she said. "Right now, we give new CSAs a briefing every Friday, but starting next month, we are going to have a class where people who don't do this as a day-to-day job, can sit down and put their hands on a computer., That way, we can stand in front of them to demonstrate how to do all the basic things they will need and then stand with them and actually watch them do it."
The CFP MOC is responsible for tracking what the back shops are doing, as well as tracking preventative maintenance inspections, monitoring scheduled network interruptions for the base or forward locations using the base as a communications hub.
"We also track anything that becomes a priority issue because it affects wing leadership or the operational missions," Sergeant Stone said. "When something like that is reported, we will track it and update leadership on a regular basis until the problem is resolved."
At any given time, Sergeant Stone said the Maintenance Operations Center is aware of what the other shops in the communications squadron are working.
"We aren't supposed to be experts on how to do everything," Sergeant Stone said. "However, we should know what's happening out there with each back shop. All information from back shops should come to here so we are kind of an end-all, be-all for information."
One of the most difficult parts of the job in the Maintenance Operations Center and the Help Desk is people calling who may not know the exact terminology to use, so it's up to CFP personnel to find out what the real problem is.
"The other day, we had a customer call and tell us her computer was down, and they couldn't get it to work," Sergeant Stone said. "But after talking to her for a few minutes, we found out it wasn't actually the computer that was down, but it wouldn't go to a specific web site they needed. So finding out exactly what the problem was changed the scope of the issue and which back shop we send out to do the work."
Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Bernardo, 379th ECS telephone maintenance scheduler, said the CFP is important in allowing the back shops to specialize on their respective jobs.
"The CFP plays an important role for us and the customer," said Sergeant Bernardo. "They eliminate unnecessary calls by having one main number and directing the trouble tickets to the correct work centers making it easier and quicker for the customer."
Sergeant Stone said the reason the CFP is able to function as well as it does is because of the people who work there.
"The Airmen working here are just outstanding," he said. "There is a lot of initiative on behalf of the folks who are in here, from the lowest ranking Airman on up, who just want to improve things, and make things better."