SOUTHWEST ASIA –
Deploying can be difficult on service members for a number of reasons. They may experience personal, financial and professional strains within the U. S. Central Command area of responsibility, which can detract from their operational readiness. One shop here shoulders the burden to ease that stress.
Being the first and only one in the CENTCOM AOR, the 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron's Airman Readiness Center is a major proponent for the welfare of U.S. and coalition forces. Their mission is to support operational readiness by helping people adapt to the challenges of expeditionary operations and military life.
"We help individuals with family life issues, reintegration and personal financial management issues," said Barbara Lang, Airman Readiness Center director, deployed from Charleston AFB. "Our mission really focuses on adaptation to the demands of deployments.
"The needs of the [service members] don't change just because they are [deployed]," she said. "The same needs they have back at home station are probably two-fold [while deployed]. Our job is to help them to deal with the demands and the challenges they are faced with due to the expeditionary mission."
The ARC now has a staff of three to look after the needs of the approximately 8,000 members deployed here. The ARC also reaches out to units on base and provides information to other bases within the AOR.
"We have a responsibility for unit outreach and with the compliment of our third staff member, we're going to be able to go out to the units and meet them even more than before but in their own fence line," said Senior Master Sgt. Grant Embrey, ARC superintendent, deployed from Kadena AB, Japan.
Without the third staff member, Mrs. Lang and Sergeant Embrey were challenged with running the ARC at full capacity. The ARC currently receives help from a pool of approximately 30 volunteers.
"This is where we really rely on volunteers to come in and assist us so we can go and do outreach and still keep the center open at the same time," Mrs. Lang said. "The volunteers help us by greeting customers, logging them on to the computers, assisting with phone calls and briefing them on the center's mission."
Busy schedules compounded with the vast difference in time zones makes it difficult for service members to manage their finances, said Mrs. Lang, who is also a certified financial counselor.
"We can help when individuals don't know what to do or how to go about doing it," she said.
The ARC provides service members and civilians with a wealth of free literature and personal knowledge on many topics to assist them with issues they may experience while deployed. When the ARC staff doesn't have the solution to what may ail customers, the staff will go above and beyond to find the proper subject matter experts.
"Even though we may not be able to help them with every single issue that they have, we will make sure they are put in touch with somebody who can assist them," said the Charleston, S.C., native. "My philosophy is to never turn a [service member] away. We will always do the best we can and research to find who can provide the answers. It keeps them from getting the run around.
"They are working long shifts and they're tired," Mrs. Lang said. "They don't have a lot of time to do the research."
To the ARC, time is the difference between impediment and readiness.
"Very often what we find is people won't come to us until they have a real need," she said. "Our job is prevention. We like to get the information out there to prevent people from getting into situations that would impact their mission readiness. Unfortunately, a lot of them come after the fact, after they have already gotten into trouble, a marital problem or debt.
"Information is power and the more power and control you have over your own life the better off you'll be," Mrs. Lang said. "You have everything to gain by coming here."
Members from Mrs. Lang's home unit have expressed their pride in knowing that she is helping Airmen.
"We are extremely proud of her and what she is doing overseas," said Flora Hoss-Mason, 437th Force Support Squadron Airman and Family Readiness Center director. "When she was selected for the position, we knew she would do a good job -- and she is doing a good job."