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Military personnel section<br>Name has changed but customer focus remains

  • Published
  • By Jonathan Hicks
  • 81st Training Wing Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The 81st Force Support Squadron's military personnel section supports thousands of active-duty military, Department of Defense civilians, contractors and retirees customers.
"We assist Airman with military personnel programs and provide advisory services to senior leaders," said Gary Schafer, MPS chief. "We support about 45,000 customers annually, including more than 10,000 retirees in the surrounding area."
The MPS is made up of four units -- customer support, career development, force management and the student personnel center.

"Our SPC is unique because it's the only one in the Air Force," Mr. Schafer pointed out. "It's located in the Triangle at the Levitow Training Support Facility and provides a 'one-stop shop' for our technical training students to take care all of their personnel issues, such as finance, identification cards, medical, travel, relocation orders and many other services. This saves class time and money."

The MPF operation has changed names over the years and was formerly known as the consolidated base personnel office and later as the military personnel flight.

"Now our organizational model complies with the Base Level Service Delivery Model, a standard that centralizes all personnel assets into a single personnel unit." Mr. Schafer explained. "These days, we're transitioning into the Personnel Services Delivery system, which means our personnel learn all the different elements of personnel operations and don't just specialize in one particular area."

What does the future hold for the MPS?

"The major movement is to mechanize more of the different services into Web-base applications," Mr. Schafer noted. "This could mean a significant reduction in personnel, meaning Airmen will have to rely more on self-service to take care of their personnel needs."

For more information, visit the customer support office, Room 125, Sablich Center, or call 376-8347.
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