Photo Caption: Staff Sgt. Jessica Brunn and Senior Airman Andrea Stokes, personnel with the 127th Force Support Squadron, Michigan National Guard, maintain the records for nearly 300 personnel during exercise Northern Strike 16 at the Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, Mich., Aug. 7, 2016. Northern Strike 16 is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,000 Army, Air Force, Marine, and Special Forces service members from 20 states and three coalition countries during the first three weeks of August 2016 at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, both located in northern Michigan. The exercise strives to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for military units from all service branches to achieve and sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, and the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action environment. (Michigan National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Samara Taylor/Released)
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Story written by TSgt. Dan Heaton, 127th Wing Public Affairs
ALPENA, Mich. --It is called ‘Total Force Accountability’ and for the 127th Wing during Northern Strike 2016, two personnel specialists from the 127th Force Support Squadron have it.
“The commanders, the chiefs, they need to be able to know where all their people are at any given point in time,” said Staff Sgt. Jessica Brunn, a personnel specialist who is one of two Airmen running the Persco – personnel support for contingency operations -- desk at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center during the three-week Northern Strike exercise that began August 1. Together, Brunn and Senior Airman Andrea Stokes are keeping tabs on some 280 personnel.
All Airmen assigned to the exercise check in with the two personnel specialists at the Persco desk. Brunn and Stokes then track where that Airman is working, where he or she is lodging, their meal assignments and other details.
“In a deployed environment, it is critical that the commander is able to have one source to be able to quickly account for all of his or her people. That’s our role,” Brunn said.
Stokes, who has been working as a personnel specialist in the Air National Guard for about four years, said she enjoys working in personnel because of the customer service aspect.
“I am a people person,” she said. “Helping customers is something I enjoy and being able to do it in a military setting is a bonus.”
Northern Strike 16 is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,000 Army, Air Force, Marine, and Special Forces service members from 20 states and three coalition countries during the first three weeks of August 2016 at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, both located in northern Michigan.
The exercise strives to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for military units from all service branches to achieve and sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, and the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action environment