PERSCO teams hone contingency skills at Silver Flag

  • Published
  • By Richard Salomon
  • Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs
A handful of Airmen have already arrived at their deployment location at Delta Air Base, Republic of Oceanna. It's not your typical Sunday morning.

Some scan their checklists to make sure their mobility bags and other essentials are in order, while a few thumb through their Airman's Manuals to bone up on proper chemical warfare procedures. Others nervously engage in small talk as they contemplate the days ahead.

Although the 90-degree heat continues to creep upward, the backdrop of this September scene isn't a desert expanse, but a wooded 1,200 acre Silver Flag exercise site at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

This "deployment" scenario is played out about 35 times a year at Tyndall AFB and about six times a year each at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and Kadena AB, Japan. At Tyndall, about 7,600 students a year descend on the remote Floridian enclosure for a week to improve their combat leadership skills and to receive the necessary training to open, establish and sustain a forward operating base.

Silver Flag provides contingency training, free from home station constraints, where combat support teams from various career fields can train, interact and conduct training operations in a realistic environment. These career fields include civil engineering, services, finance, communications, contracting ... and personnel, or as it's better known in deployment circles, Personnel Support for Contingency Operations.

Silver Flag's PERSCO team, which is usually made up of five to nine personnellists and one or two manpower professionals, are the first to arrive, so they can take care of their No. 1 priority: accountability.

"Our motto is 'first in, last out,'" said Master Sgt. Charlie Carr, NCO in charge of PERSCO/manpower training and one of the team's three instructors. "The PERSCO team needs to be on site early so they can account for all the students. In the field, it's vital for the combatant commanders to know how strong their units are and how those numbers affect readiness."

At deployed locations, PERSCO teams verify who is in the field by name, Air Force specialty code, grade, gender and other factors. At any given time, there are more than 80 PERSCO teams operating 24/7 in deployed environments worldwide.

Keeping it real
Before setting foot on Silver Flag's Delta AB, PERSCO team members pick up their A (general support) and C (chemical defense) mobility bags at their home bases. The A-bag consists of a helmet, web belt, body armor, sleeping bag, canteen kit, mess kit and other support items. The C-bag includes a protective mask, mask filters, gloves, hood, boots, detection papers and other chemical defense items.

"From the start, their minds are focused on deploying, just as if they were going to Iraq or Afghanistan," said Staff Sgt. Benito Colon Jr., a PERSCO/manpower instructor. "Even though home stations are required to conduct monthly PERSCO training, the goal here is to give the students the opportunity to execute those skills."

In 2007, about 35 percent of PERSCO Airmen who deployed to Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom attended Silver Flag training. Based on posturing in the AEF cycle, the Air Staff identifies the major commands that will be tasked for deployments, and they in turn identify which bases are going to send Airmen to Silver Flag.

The readiness operations branch, at the Air Force Personnel Center's Air and Space Expeditionary Force and Personnel Operations Directorate, oversees Silver Flag's PERSCO piece for Tyndall by working the funding issues, reporting instructions and special experience identifiers to make sure the available Airmen are qualified to go. The branch is also responsible for scheduling and sending PERSCO Airmen to Kadena and Ramstein Air Bases.

"We work with the various bases and individuals who are going to Silver Flag and make sure they have everything in order," said Master Sgt. John Henderson, readiness operations branch superintendent. "The goal is to make sure those who are postured to deploy, have the first opportunity to attend this valuable training."

Once Airmen arrive at Silver Flag, they are given "hooch" assignments and a week's worth of Meals, Ready to Eat. Laundry facilities and a small recreation center are available for use.

"After a couple of nights, I started sleeping a lot better in the cot," said Tech. Sgt. Don White, NCOIC of awards and decorations at AFPC. "In this environment, you're working together, eating MREs, and going through the various contingency scenarios as a team. There's no substitute for this back at our home units. It kind of reminds me of why I joined the Air Force to begin with."

As a PERSCO polisher and build-up to Thursday's exercise, the team takes to the classroom for a couple of days to learn an array of wartime skills, including the intricacies of Manpower and Personnel Module - Base, or MANPER-B, which is a classified computer system used to account for deployed forces.

"Most of our reports are run out of this system, so getting some hands-on MANPER-B training will prove to be very helpful," said Staff Sgt. Tonya Posey, an extended deployment assignments officer at AFPC who is slated to deploy to Kuwait in the coming months. "This training definitely gets us in the proper mind-set, so we can be more effective when we do deploy. After this, I don't think it will be as much of a shock."

Classroom topics also cover how basic contingency operations are set up in the areas of responsibility, various unit type codes, chemical warfare, different PERSCO team arrangements, the RedMini (a classified mailbox system used to relay deployment transactions), mission oriented protective postures, instructions on how to communicate with commanders on PERSCO matters and, of course, casualty reporting.

"That's one of our biggest blocks and we cover all types of casualties, such as duty status-whereabouts unknown, deceased, missing, ill and injured," said Sergeant Carr. "They practice doing different types of casualty messages and how to effectively communicate with the proper authorities."

Casualty reports provide vital information to the Air Force Casualty Office at AFPC and to the Red Cross, so family members are immediately notified if a tragedy occurs.

In the AOR, PERSCO teams are also responsible for inprocessing and outprocessing personnel, re-enlistments, AOR travel and emergency leave requests, duty status reports and more. Duty status reports are an essential tool that allows commanders to identify names, strength accountability and availability of personnel.

"We also run them through the various PERSCO checklists to get them ready for when they actually do deploy," said Sergeant Carr. "They're here to hone their skills and reinforce what they have learned at their home unit, so we try to keep things loose, yet challenging and realistic."

That reality extends to the possibility of deploying to a bare piece of land - that's where Monday's tent-building exercise comes in. The entire Silver Flag contingent of about 140 students sets up 10 20-foot by 32-foot Alaskan Small Shelters, where they'll sleep Thursday night during the exercise.

"Working with members of the finance team, we were able to get our tent up, but it took a couple of hours of sweat and hard work," said Senior Master Sgt. Nate Tennyson, who serves as the superintendent of civilian force integration at AFPC. "Under normal conditions, we don't get a chance to do our wartime mission very much. Here, we get to do things we normally don't get to do and, overall, it's been a little more realistic than I thought it was going to be."

After days of relying on their mental acumen in the classroom, the students headed to the 823rd Red Horse Squadron's obstacle course to let off a little steam and to get them in the right frame of mind for Thursday's exercise -- and the possible rigors of deployment.

"If one person hits the ground, everyone does 25 pushups," barked Sergeant Carr, as the students tackled the first of the course's 13 stations.

On the last obstacle, the students had to pull themselves upside down along a rope for about 80 feet across a pool.

"Only one person in our class made it across without getting wet and it wasn't me," said Sergeant Tennyson. "Later, however, after we put on some dry clothes, we were able to enjoy our first hot meal of the week."

The big day
It's Thursday ... barely. Operation Silver Steed gets underway at 3:30 a.m., which means all Silver Flag participants roll out of their cots, gather their gear, and get ready to load up in a convoy of military vehicles.

"We're busy making sure everyone is accounted for and that everyone is in their proper grouping," said Master Sgt. Stephanie Kerekes, superintendent of the Defense Integrated Military Human Resource System's Reports & Requirements Section at AFPC. "Just doing these types of tasks, while wearing the extra gear, takes a little getting used to."

A few hours later, 12 vehicles forward deployed to Tango Air Base, Republic of Oceanna -- the area they set up their shelters Monday and where they bedded down that night. After taking the two-mile trek, thankfully with no simulated terrorists attacks along the way, the entire contingent opened and established bare base operations.

The plans developed earlier in the week were put into action. CE Airmen repaired runways, services personnel set up field kitchens, finance folks worked pay and purchasing issues, and the PERSCO professionals set up shop and "put to use everything they learned throughout the week," Sergeant Colon said.

"It's a student-driven exercise from start to finish, from bare base to sustainment operations," he said. "All of the sections play an important role, and it gives our PERSCO Airmen a chance to see how they fit into the overall mission."

At the start of the 18-hour exercise, the PERSCO team jump-started their PERSCO office by hooking up their classified and unclassified computers, unloading office supplies from their PERSCO kit, and by placing various status reports, charts, suspenses and checklists on the walls. While the team was "deployed" in the AOR, they were being judged and observed in their 15-foot by 12-foot room, a contingency laboratory of sorts, through one-way glass partitions. The instructors could see and listen in, but not the other way around.

For the hours that followed, PERSCO instructors tossed the team challenges from beyond the glass by e-mail, phone and messenger. Those scenarios included processing emergency leave requests from other units, dealing with simulated bomb threats, working requests to build more unit authorizations, processing new casualties, responding to an NCO who needed exact numbers of personnel in his unit, handling a commander's request for a personnel roster sorted by blood type and so on.

As the requests came rolling in, Sergeant Kerekes correctly said to the group, "OK, let's think this through. Everything else can wait; the casualties take precedence."

Later in the day, the team experienced another challenge that was casually tossed into the office ... a training grenade.

"I wanted the team to be prepared for anything that might come up," said Sergeant Carr.

The team reacted to the potentially explosive situation by quickly exiting the room. After hearing the "all clear" alert, they returned and resumed the exercise.

"Going through this relieves a lot of the anxiety of what my job is going to be," said Capt. Jody Hodges, of the 2nd Manpower Requirements Squadron at Langley AFB, Va. "I volunteered for this because I wanted to learn and be ready for my Kabul [Afghanistan] deployment next year. This exercise definitely gives me some insight on how manpower and personnel work together on various scenarios."

One of those scenarios included a simulated call from the Air Force Casualty Office. It was from a concerned mother from Minot AFB, N.D., who was worried that her son may have died in recent bombings near his deployed location. A hunt for information ensued with a quick rundown of the alpha roster followed by a call and visit to mortuary affairs.

"We want them to fight for the information," said Sergeant Carr, "and realize that a lot of times it isn't just going to be given to them."

He said at times he has to be part instructor, part motivator and part counselor.

"You can see changes in their attitudes as the week goes on and some adjust better than others," Sergeant Carr said. "Every class is unique and has a different blend of personalities. For me, that's what makes it interesting. Most people come in and do well, but at times we do have individuals who don't handle the stress very well. You have to find different ways to motivate them."

During Thursday's exercise, the team is also getting peppered with other stressful scenarios, such as "malfunctioning" computers (courtesy of the instructors), conventional and chemical attacks, and a simulated hostage situation where one PERSCO member was "snatched" temporarily when she failed to have a wingman with her when she left the office.

"Until about 2100, it seemed like it was one situation after another, which included two hours in the gas mask," said Sergeant Tennyson. "It was indeed a very long day."

It's Friday!
Friday morning dawned with the promise of deploying home as the students' efforts to open a base were reversed. Plans were built for outgoing personnel, and gear was packed and returned to the taxiway where it sat in the darkness Thursday morning.

"My advice to other students is to treat Silver Flag as if it were real because if you don't pay attention to what you are doing here, you probably won't pay attention to it in the AOR," Sergeant Tennyson said. "Also, don't be afraid to ask questions. The instructors are there to teach you, not set you up for failure."

Throughout the week, the PERSCO instructors compile "cadre comments" that will be used in the feedback sessions; these are important lessons learned the students can take back to their home bases and deployed locations.

"I love seeing the satisfaction students receive when they learn these skills, especially knowing that they'll apply them directly to the field," Sergeant Colon said. "It's especially rewarding to see the 'thank you' e-mails from former students after they've gone on to deploy."

PERSCO's expeditionary mission is ongoing at Silver Flag. When one team finishes and goes home, another one arrives and is just beginning.

"There're always new Airmen we need to train," said Sergeant Carr, "to get ready for when they do deploy -- any time, any place."

For more information, go to AFPC's "Ask" Web site and enter "PERSCO" in the search engine. Individuals can also contact the 24-hour Air Force Contact Center at (800) 616-3775.