WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The 445th Airlift Wing Command Post relays communication, providing organizational and emergency services support for the safety and security of the nearly 1,700 Reserve Citizen Airmen throughout the wing 24 hours a day.
The Command Post reports directly to the wing commander and provides command and control resources during routine flight operations, emergencies, contingencies and increased readiness.
“We are a ground liaison between getting our missions off the ground and all the other agencies on the base,” said Master Sgt. Amber Church, 445th AW Command Post superintendent. “Whatever information is necessary to get our missions off the ground, that’s what we focus on,” Church continued. “We do whatever we need to do, coordinate with whoever we need to coordinate with to get the cargo to get passengers, to get the crew taken care of. Communication is the key to getting this job done.”
They also ensure the wing’s nine C-17 Globemaster III aircraft are flying missions, and Airmen are kept up to date on relevant information from around the base. In a nutshell, the command post is the hub of incoming and outgoing communications for the wing.
“We are constantly in contact with the base, letting them know the missions that we have and where they’re going and what they need, keeping them in the loop,” Church said. “That extends to our Airmen. The ability to know what’s going on and adjusting to changes in information is the name of the game.”
The communication could include providing weather alerts and emergency notifications to changes in force protection conditions.
While each individual Air Force Specialty Code in the Air Force has a list of tasks and functions, the command post is unique in that its mission supplements and supports all other jobs around the wing simultaneously.
In addition to providing accurate communications during flight operations, the command post will direct critical communications to the wing commander in the event of an emergency.
If something happens to an Airman off base, it is usually the command post who receives contact from emergency services and relays that to the appropriate parties.
“I enjoy the pace we deal with, because it’s not always the same day in and day out,” said Master Sgt. Daniel Berry, 445th AW Command Post senior controller. “There’s always something different going on. We could be dealing with injuries or aircraft incidents or a variety of other scenarios that we have to be prepared for. Our ops tempo can be unpredictable, so we have to be ready to make sure everyone else is ready.”
Whether it’s providing weather updates and emergency alerts or notifying Airmen of a change in the status of base security, the command post handles and passes information on to make sure everyone else’s mission can be accomplished. It’s a job they don’t take lightly.
“We ensure our planes get off the ground no matter what type of mission it is, whether we’re supporting active duty or we’re just flying a local mission for training for our own pilots,” Church said.
“There is a lot of job satisfaction that accompanies having that responsibility,” Church continued. ‘We can get the message across, and no matter where we are, our job is mobile and we are always operational.”