Several years ago Air Force officials pushed for Total Force integration, breaking down the walls between active duty and the active reserve components, combining them into one team. In a time of budget constraints, this initiative enabled better utilization of the Air Force’s greatest asset, its Airmen. Here on Maxwell, the total- force concept has been implemented, merging manpower between the 42nd Air Base Wing and the 908th Airlift Wing. One team in particular is the Maxwell Command Post.
The Maxwell Command Post integrated active duty and active reserves in 2011, who continue to serve side-by side today.
Within the Maxwell Command Post there are 10 reservists, three of which are dual status employees, and seven active duty. Full time manpower is the Active duty and the 3 full time reservists who are in a civil service status who wear a military uniform.
From outside looking in, the only thing differentiating the Airmen are the stripes on their sleeves.
Senior Master Sgt. Lamar Colbert, Maxwell Command Post 908th superintendent, said the concept is one-base-one-command-post, and no one should be able to tell the active duty or reserve members apart.
SSgt. Paris Jepko, Maxwell Command Post 42nd ABW noncommissioned officer in charge of reports said there are pros and cons to integrating active duty and reserve, but the benefits outweigh the disadvantages by what they can each bring to the table.
Before arriving to Maxwell, she was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, where the total-force concept had not been adopted. She shared her thoughts on the active duty and reserve partnership she has experienced here.
“Having that continuity, they’ve been here, they know that normal every day stuff that kind of happens and then we come here as new command post controllers and we don’t know, so they show us those ropes and we bring in the ideas of our prior command posts or prior duty stations,” said Jepko.
The reserve side of the house helps new Airmen get acquainted with Maxwell, but they can also learn something from their new wingmen.
Reservists will spend their entire careers at one base and learn everything that goes on for that one base, but active duty move every couple years and they’re everywhere in the world Said Colbert. He ended by saying he may be good at what he does here, but there may be a lot more to the equation that helps train reservists.
When the 42nd ABW and 908th AW command posts combined, the benefits of the dual partnership between the two became evident. Before the merge, 908th Airmen dealt mostly with command control of the aircraft and were unfamiliar with procedures associated with routine, base-wide procedures. For the 42nd, the situation was the opposite. Airmen from both sides gained experience that otherwise would not have been available while here at Maxwell. However, the opportunity to learn didn’t stop there. When new active duty Airmen arrive they bring with them their ideas on how to improve, like Master Sgt. Keith Mesarchik, Maxwell Command Post 42nd ABW superintendent, when he proposed the use of the air crew package, the paperwork and information needed by a flight crew stored conveniently in one package, when first arriving to Maxwell.
“I’ve been here since 99, so things had changed. There are new things that I had never seen before,” said Colbert.
The Maxwell Command post admits to some challenges due to joining together Airmen of all facets of the Air Force, but because of good communication, cooperation, good attitudes and high morale, they have become a unified team.