AFSC Manpower offices realigned Published April 2, 2013 By Mike W. Ray Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Air Force Manpower offices, realigned from headquarters to air base wings or air logistics centers two decades ago, have been moved yet again to Force Support/Mission Support Squadrons. In the Air Force Sustainment Center, administration of Manpower offices at Tinker AFB, Hill AFB, Utah, and Robins AFB, Ga., will move from the Directorate of Personnel to the Force Support Squadrons at each of the three bases. The effective date of the cutover is April 1, said Kenneth E. "Gene" Gibson, AFSC Manpower Organization and Resources chief. On that date, the installation Manpower offices at Tinker, Robins and Hill will report to their Force Support Squadrons. "Physically, nothing changes except whom the Manpower chief reports to," Mr. Gibson added, and some processes will be modified. "Manpower analysts will still do the same job, but administrative control will change." For example, here at Tinker, the Manpower Office chief, Terry Holland, will report to Nicole Gage, the Manpower and Personnel Flight chief (72nd FSS/FSM). The rationale for the realignment was "compliance with Air Force construct," said Mr. Gibson, who came to Tinker AFB in 2006 after a 30-year career in the Air Force, mostly in manpower. The change also comports with the AFSC goal of improving processes and optimizing resources at all work centers. About 2005, after 20 or so years with Manpower offices being assigned to the ALCs "or some other host function," Mr. Gibson recalled, Manpower offices were placed under Mission Support Squadrons, which subsequently were renamed Force Support Squadrons. Around 2009, Air Force Materiel Command "determined that this construct wasn't working well across AFMC," Mr. Gibson said. The major concern was that Manpower was losing its effectiveness in providing independent, objective advice to customers as a result of organizational placement under unnecessary layers of oversight. As a result, AFMC submitted an organizational change request to the Air Force, seeking permission to move Manpower offices to the Centers under the Directorate of Personnel. The Air Force "didn't approve the request, but didn't disapprove it, either," Mr. Gibson said. What they did was approve a test of the change and selected each of the ALCs, along with a couple of other AFMC bases, to participate. This resulted in the Manpower offices at Tinker, Robins and Hill coming under their respective Personnel Directorates. Subsequently, during implementation of the 5-Center Construct and given that most AFMC bases would no longer have centers physically on location, the decision was made by AFMC and Air Force officials to move Manpower back under the Force Support Squadrons. And although the 5CC change started in July 2012, the realignment of Manpower was delayed until now as a result of the 5CC organizational change and their "integral role in that process," Mr. Gibson said. That realignment was initially scheduled to occur on Oct. 1, 2012, but AFSC officials "thought it would be better to ensure that we did the realignment in a proper way," Mr. Gibson said. So the date was pushed back to ensure the processes and structure were in place to ensure a smooth transition. For example, the "push over" will be relatively easy to do at Tinker, but at Robins and Hill the Manpower offices were never fully under the operational control of their respective FSSs prior to the test, "so we had to create structure and in some cases processes for them to operate under," Mr. Gibson said. Not only Manpower, but also the Civilian Personnel and Civilian Education and Training offices, will transfer back to the air base wings. Personnel and Education/Training will cut over in a few months, by around the end of the fiscal year, Mr. Gibson said. "There are a lot of moving parts in this process." "The functional relationship between the installations' Manpower offices and the AFSC/DP will not cease to exist," William T. Swigert, Jr., director of Manpower and Personnel for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex Directorate of Personnel, emphasized recently. "Rather, AFSC/DP will work closely with the installation Manpower offices to ensure the continued level of support AFSC customers have come to expect from the AFSC Manpower community."