“Deployment and Distribution is a big, overarching thing,” said Joe Simon, assistant installation deployment officer. “It’s more than just one office, it’s actually multiple offices that have all these different functions.
Deployment and Distribution has many divisions that contribute to the overall tasked mission. Plans and Integration, Transportation, Material Management, Maintenance, Vehicle Operations and more, all play a vital role in equipping and supporting active-duty members for an assignment.
Once the Plans and Integration office receives the deployment tasking, a deployment officer or manager, informs the UDM within the active-duty members organization of what the requirement is and everything that person will need to complete the process.
“Here in Plans and Integration, we are more of a support function for the UDM, telling them what is going on, who has been tasked, and what is needed to get them out of the door,” said Amber Rich, unit deployment, training and Air Expeditionary Force Reporting Tool installation manager.
However, since Wright-Patterson is not an operational base, deployments can be slightly different.
“There are other installations out there that deploy like us, basically sending maybe two-three people to fill in a larger group somewhere,” said Jeff Carson, installation deployment officer. “The bottom line is we have to get the right people or equipment to the right place at the right time.”
To help achieve their bottom line successfully, Ready the Warfighter required pre-deployment briefings provide important information to those deploying active duty and civilian members stationed at Wright-Patt. RTW offers deplorers a one-stop shop to receive multiple briefings over the course of two-and-a half hours, the third Thursday of every month.
“I have currently revised the RTW program, tailoring it to look more like a Personnel Deployment Function, or PDF2019,” said Pam Capenos, Ready the Warfighter program manager. “Deplorers may still have a few offices to visit, but we bring nine agencies together under one roof, so they can talk with them, set up legal appointments, have dog tags made, if needed, and get signatures on their deployment checklist taken care of all at one time.”
With the new, condensed program briefings, Deployment and Distribution is moving more toward how things are being executed day-to-day at Wright-Patt, not so much like an operational base would do.
“We’re able to give them the meat of the information they’re going to need, so we’re not wasting their time, and they can return to the office and take care of their current mission sooner,” said Capenos.
Deployment and Distribution equips or supports all of Wright-Patterson with what they need to deploy successfully, to include each of its tenants.
“Many people don’t know what we do here until they are tasked for a deployment,” said Carson. “We ensure they have everything they are supposed to have before we send them out of the door. If there are deployments happening at Wright-Patt, we’re involved.”
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