Augmentees support base where help is needed

Published Dec. 16, 2011
By Steve Hoffmann
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- You may be familiar with the campaign of commercials -- someone looking a bit out of place gives the order to close up after brain surgery, or presses just the right sequence of buttons to narrowly avert a nuclear meltdown. Then, when congratulated, the individual is asked if they are a new employee, to which the calm, cool and collected individual replies, "No. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

If so, it might give you a glimpse into Keesler's augmentee program. Units and squadrons from around the base lend their members for the good of the whole to fill in where help is needed. After they receive training from the units that need their help, you can hardly tell the difference between an augmentee and the real thing.

"Augmentees help us make the mission happen," said Capt. Christopher Porta, 81st Security Forces Squadron operations officer. "We appreciate them beyond words and couldn't get the job done without them."

81st Logistics Readiness Squadron and 81st SFS are the two most heavily tasked squadrons on the base and consequently are the two biggest customers of Keesler's augmentee program.

Although not part of the augmentation program proper, Keesler's Honor Guard unit is supported entirely by members from the various units and squadrons on base. Mandated by Congress, the honor guard provides honors at funerals for active duty, dependents of active duty and retirees. They also perform in parades, retirement ceremonies and other community relation events. Keesler's Honor Guard covers an area of 48,000 square miles over 68 counties in the southern half of Mississippi and Louisiana.

"We're all augmentees," said Master Sgt. Tonya Santiago, superintendent of honor guard operations. "Unlike the other units who have augmentees supporting permanent duty members, there are no permanent honor guard members. The augmentees are the honor guard."

Honor guard members serve year round in 90 day on, 90 day off rotations. And according to James Taylor, Keesler's mortuary affairs officer, some who get selected to serve, will ask for additional rotations because they see the good it does for the families of fallen service members.

Keesler's augmentees are often like the aces in the hole, the kids who come off the bench, throw on their helmets and win the game. There may not be roaring crowds to laud their accomplishments but sometimes their service is no less remarkable.

"On 9/11, fifty minutes after the first plane hit, we were in the general's office working on contingency plans to get security forces, medical support and supplies to New York City and the Pentagon," said Wayne Rowell, 81st LRS chief of deployment operations. "We had augmentees working 30 hours straight that day. We used them for a month and a half moving cargo during 24-hour operations."

"They have helped us tremendously during our manning shortage," added Chief Master Sgt. Patrick Bryant, 81st SFS superintendent. "They show up very eager to learn. They catch on quickly. They're diligent and perform their duties in a professional manner. This allows us to meet our posting and frees up our more experienced members to respond to more complex calls for service."

Augmentees receive extensive training to be able to perform the duties they are being asked to do.

"Our augmentees receive security forces training on their duties as installation entry controllers and security response team members," said Bryant. "In addition, they receive training on weapons and proper use of force."

81st LRS employs a 3-day curriculum when they receive augmentees. They receive training on how to perform such aerial port duties as unloading and loading cargo, weighing, processing and inspection of cargo, certifying and safeguarding cargo and how to operate equipment and tools used to move cargo.

According to Rowell, it's an outstanding curriculum that was recognized in the most recent operational readiness and unit compliance inspections.

The benefits to those who use augmentees are obvious. But what's in it for an augmentee? What do they get out of being an augmentee other than additional duty? Monetarily - nothing. However, in the realm of the intangible, the benefits are very real.

"It puts them in a different category above their peers when they get selected for augmentee duty," said Rowell. "It's a chance to stand out. A lot of quarterly award winners will have an augmentee bullet in their resume."

Also, the attitude of the augmentee is also an important component in the benefit they receive.

"The ones who volunteer to come out are a breed apart from the ones who are 'volun-told'," added Rowell. "We know who the volunteers are. It shows in their work."

It's also an opportunity for augmenter and augmentee to come together and share ideas, to see and appreciate their role in the Air Force from a different perspective.

"Airmen from different career fields and backgrounds come in with different perspectives and ideas that we as security force members may not see," noted Bryant. "This helps us develop innovative ideas to improve our operational environment."

And there are other ways to bring benefit to an augmentee because as Rowell puts it, "A happy augmentee is a productive augmentee."

" When we bring an augmentee in for orientation, we ask them if they've had any previous experience," said Rowell. "If so, there might be a particular area that they'd like to work. Some don't want to drive forklifts, others can't wait. So we have a tendency to use augmentees where their skill set is the strongest."

The skills and training augmentees receive stick with them and have a way of opening doors throughout their career in the Air Force.

"It has far-reaching effects," Rowell added. "If they've served in 81st SFS, they become better with their weapons. If they've worked with 81st LRS, it gives the skills that, when they get deployed, will help them in the field. If they become a Tech or a Master Sgt., they can definitely draw back on the experience they had as an augmentee."

Augmentees support Security Forces