MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- When a service member is eligible for a promotion or tasked for a new location, there are people behind the curtain that are working hard to ensure everything happens seamlessly.
There are many flights within the 23rd Force Support Squadron Military Personnel Section that support Team Moody in a way that allows base members to focus on their day-to-day mission. But the MPS career development flight is the team responsible for Airmen’s promotions, assignments and out-processing to make life easier.
“We take that burden so they can focus on the job, defending the gates or generating sorties,” said 2nd Lt. Christopher Robinson, 23rd FSS officer in charge of career development. “We just kind of make sure people’s livelihoods are taken care of so that we’re making progress on the mission.”
The goal is to provide that peace of mind so that if Airmen loses track of important dates or significant career development milestones, they know a skilled team is there to watch their back. People go to MPS and the career development flight for a variety of reasons, so it’s crucial that MPS is an organized and efficient resource to create an efficient force.
“Anything to do with promotions, rank updates and web testing, we do,” said Airman 1st Class Jan Beatrice Fabay, 23rd FSS career development technician. “People can’t deploy without us; they can’t promote without us. It’s really nice knowing in the back of my head that we have that power to help them.”
While promotions affect Airmen’s pay and time in service, they also have the potential to affect retirement or separation if they don’t promote to the next rank prior to reaching their high year of tenure. MPS must properly notify Airmen and their leadership of promotion eligibility to ensure their records are up to date and correct.
But promotions are just one aspect of the many career development flight’s duties. Another major part is the process of assigning an Airman to a new location.
“We try to bridge the gap and make their transition a lot smoother (to a new base or a new position),” said Airman 1st Class Viviana Capacete, 23rd FSS career development technician. “We try to take the (stress) off of them and do the heavy lifting.”
The assignment process varies depending on assignment location, type and the member’s dependent status. MPS has no control over where an Airman goes, but they ensure they’re providing the correct information to their customers by vetting every assignment selection.
Capacete said she believes the assignment process has a large effect on Airmen’s morale.
“I feel like that’s going to make a big impact on how they view the Air Force,” she continued.
Understanding promotion timelines and the assignment process can be stressful, so the MPS is also there to make out-processing smoother and less stressful for Airmen across the base.
Moving is already hard on the member – cleaning and selling a home, setting up any children for a new school, training replacements in their job, complying with out-processing deadlines … the list goes on and on. The career development flight knows this, and they’ve created step-by-step guides on the process and are available for any questions that arise.
“If we didn’t exist, people wouldn’t have the support they need to do their job,” Robinson said. “People’s families wouldn’t have (peace of mind) with their PCS, or members would have to PCS without their family members if we didn’t do our job correctly.”
To that end, those experts behind the curtain at the MPS career development flight will continue to provide the support necessary to make life easier for Moody Airmen.