Guard and Reserve members provide many support roles in Personnel Support in Contingency Operations, or PERSCO, around the region.

However, this rotation, Reserve component servicemembers comprise more than 95 percent of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing PERSCO team.

“We’re not sure why it happened this way,” said Senior Master Sgt. Gary Yonchak, PERSCO superintendent and first sergeant. “But, it’s really neat to see us all coming together under one roof, getting the mission done.”

Sergeant Yonchak is a reservist from the 910th Mission Support Flight based at Youngstown Air Reserve Base, Ohio. He said about half of his troops here never deployed out of the continental U.S. before this tour.

“The (Reserve component) volunteers have the same qualifications as active duty, but they also bring unique assets to the fight,” he said. “We have a wealth of experience and depth in our jobs. Many of our folks have completed 15 to 20 years of service.”

With 34 years of service, Sergeant Yonchak represents the more experienced Reservists. At the other end of the spectrum is Airman 1st Class Andrena Cleek, also from Youngstown ARS, who just reached 18 months in service.

Just as their years in service vary, so do their backgrounds. Master Sgt. Becky Napierala, a member of the 120th Fighter Wing Air National Guard, Great Falls, Mont., works full time for the U.S. Postal Service. She applies her customer service skills to handle thousands of people transferring through Southwest Asia. Sergeant Napierala thinks there’s a distinct advantage in having Reserve component and active duty mixed in one deployed PERSCO team.

“We all learn different ways of doing things,” she said. “We pick up best practices, put them in place here and take them back to our home units.”

The team’s mission is simple: account for the whereabouts of people deployed and incoming transients. This includes arrivals, forward deployments and returns home. If any base personnel go to Iraq, Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa for temporary duty, PERSCO tracks them.

“We’re the eyes and the ears for the wing commander when it comes to people,” Sergeant Yonchak said. “Sometimes it gets downright crazy, like when we experience a surge of transients during a rotational swap. We had aircraft coming and going with passengers around the clock. In one week’s timeframe, we met, greeted and informed thousands of people.”

Since the first of the year, the team has processed more than 15,000 people. The team works two shifts, keeping the processing area staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We have a distinct advantage working with people coming from different units and different civilian jobs,” said Senior Airman Sabrina Harden, a Guard member with the 141st Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base. “The 379th PERSCO team represents a diverse bag of talents from every sector of life. That’s what makes us work so well together as a team and work well with the people we serve.”