379th Air Expeditionary Wing

Story by Senior Airman Michael Matkin

When service members need foreign currency to purchase gifts and souvenirs from the local area, they visit the 379th Expeditionary Comptroller Squadron where they find ready and willing experts to assist servicemembers. However, helping service members with currency exchange is just one part of the finance office's mission.

"Our mission is to provide high quality customer service, to include decision support analysis, by presenting base leadership with the most accurate financial data in order to make an informed decision to execute the wing's mission," said Senior Master Sgt. Durand Phillips, 379 ECPTS superintendent, deployed from Altus Air Force Base, Okla.

The 379 ECPTS also offers support through military banking and financing systems for deployed service members by providing 24/7 access to their checking accounts through the use of the EagleCash card program, said Staff Sgt. Karina Myers, 379 ECPTS customer service technician, deployed from Anderson AFB, Guam. The EagleCash card program is a cash management tool designed to support U.S. military personnel deployed in combat zones and on peacekeeping missions. The program uses smart card technology and off line batch processing to reduce the amount of U.S. currency in circulation overseas, and to take workload out of the base finance office, thus freeing up military personnel for other essential duties.

"What makes finance a vital part of the overall mission is that we supply [service members] the resources and equipment they need to accomplish their mission," Phillips said. "This is part of the way we contribute to the fight. By doing our job, we allow [service members] to focus on their mission and not the financial part of it."

To help service members stay focused, the 379 ECPTS ensures everyone and everything is getting paid, including the base's bills as well as the service members. They also make sure personnel get any financial advice they may need, Myers said.

To make sure the base's bills are being paid, the 379 ECPTS works closely with the 379th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron, said Maj. Michael Bryant, 379 ECPTS budget officer, deployed from the Pentagon, Washington D.C. The relationship between finance and contracting is an important part in providing goods and services to the base; contracting procures the items and finance makes sure the bills are paid. Basically, finance does the paperwork and sends it to contracting who, in turn, makes the purchase.

Accounting for the funds to pay for these services is handled by the budgeting section, a six person shop that manages the base budget of more than $79 million, Bryant said. However, besides the budget they also manage a lot of other funding executed here by Air Forces Central Command and other outside agencies. The total amount of base funds executed in fiscal year 2009 was more than $451 million.

"Being in charge of such a large budget is a lot of responsibility and it takes a lot of effort to scrutinize everything that is being purchased to make sure we are doing everything according to fiscal law; however, the [service members] here do an outstanding job," Bryant said.

One of their biggest challenges in working with such a large budget is balancing it every day. "It requires a lot of teamwork and communication to monitor the status of funds, pay the base bills and enforce budget policies," Bryant said. "We are talking about budgeting millions of dollars every day, and we can't be off by even 10 cents."

Accounting for all of the funds that come through the base becomes even more difficult when the number of transactions increases, Myers said. Typically the finance office serves more than 200 customers a day, but when a large rotation comes through that amount can almost double, thereby increasing the funds that flow through the finance office.

The 379 ECPTS accounts for millions of dollars every day, striving to be good stewards of U.S. taxpayers' dollars. They do this by ensuring the missions of the 379 AEW, Air Forces Central Command and other outside agencies have the necessary funding and that the funding is used appropriately. These financiers also provide one on one assistance to individual service members, ensuring financial distractions do not hinder the mission.

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