Everything moves through TMO

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kathleen D. Bryant
  • 23d Wing Public Affairs
Moody Air Force Base, Ga. --  Whether it is aircraft, passengers or cargo, nothing can move in or out of Moody without the 23d Logistics Readiness Squadron traffic management office (TMO).

As an essential part of Moody's mission, TMO is responsible for coordinating personal property and cargo movement as well as scheduling passenger travel arrangements for permanent change of station moves, TDYs and deployments.

"If TMO didn't exist there would be a lot of confused people that wouldn't know what to do when they move," said U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Kiandra Alexander, 23d LRS traffic management journeyman. "It'd be chaos! People who've never moved before would come in and have no idea what to do."

Whether people are PCSing or deploying, TMO's passenger travel section is responsible for booking their travel arrangements.

"We book flights for deployments, TDYs and PCSs," said Senior Airman Cassandra Kruskie, 23d LRS flight passenger travel assistant. "The main goal is to get [people] where they're going in the quickest, most efficient and economical way."

TMO's passenger travel section faces a challenge with a goal to be timely when scheduling flights for people.

"The biggest challenge is getting [members] wherever they are going on time," said Georgeann Galitello, 23d LRS passenger travel supervisor. "That's the most important part in passenger travel, especially on deployments."

Timeliness is not just a challenge for the passenger travel section of TMO. PCSing passengers may need to coordinate with TMO's personal property section to have their personal property relocated.

"When the members come here, we interpret their orders," said Deborah Cody, 23d Logistics Readiness Squadron personal property chief. "We find out what their entitlement is for moving and brief them on the entitlement based on what they're authorized. We also assist them with the new deputy personal property system (DPS) on www.move.mil to schedule their things to be moved."

DPS gives users the ability to self-counsel and submit their application online for their personal property move from home but, if needed, TMO can help with any part of the moving process.

"Moving is stressful for a lot of people," said Cody. "Our job is to alleviate some of that stress from the members to make their life a little bit easier."

Though TMO helps move members from place to place, they also are responsible for all the items that goes through the cargo movement warehouse, made up of three sections: inbound, outbound and packing and crating.

"Everything from aircraft parts to official documents that needs to ship from this base comes through the warehouse," said Master Sgt. Mohamad Sesay, 23d LRS deployment and distribution superintendent.

All the cargo that enters or leaves the warehouse is documented and accounted for by the Airmen.

"Four or five trucks could show up at the same time," Master Sgt. Kimberly Gibson, 23d LRS traffic management flight superintendent. "Each truck might show up with 150-200 pieces on it and the Airmen have to account for everything. When they sign their name saying they received it and something gets left on the truck, the Airman [who signed for it] is held accountable."

There's much to be accounted for as Airmen in the warehouse handle approximately 15,000 pieces of cargo per week. Regardless they have to make sure they keep things moving in a timely manner, no matter where they are located.

"Whether deployed or at home station, our career field has such a high demand everywhere we go," said Sesay. "We are constantly hustling."

All the responsibility and fast pace work follows TMO Airmen when they deploy.

"TMO is needed so much down range," added Sesay. "It's unbelievable. We have to coordinate all the flight itineraries. If not, people don't move place to place. Additionally, all the aircraft parts are processed on a daily basis. It's a lot of work.

TMO acts as the main component for coordinating air, surface and sea movement requests no matter where they are located. When it comes to the Air Force's supply chain, the process starts and ends with TMO.