People specializing in people: Military Personnel Flight

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. — Serving around 54,000 Airmen, civilians, retirees and their families, the Military Personnel Flight at Robins handles various matters pertaining to customer service, out processing, deployments, passports, promotion, retention, extension, retirements and more.

“The mission of the flight is basically the human resources function for all of the military members on base, and also for retirees in the area,” Capt. Calahan Kirkhart, flight commander, said.

Kirkhart works to oversee the four sections of the Military Personnel Flight: career development, customer support, force management and installation personnel readiness.

“I will go to installationwide, wingwide meetings to advocate for our folks, and also just inform leaders about personnel programs, new changes and what’s going on,” Kirkhart explained. “[All of us here] are advisors to the installation on personnel programs. Day to day, we get asked tons of super specific questions, that we have to dig into regulations and figure out what the best course of action is for those individuals.”

Annually, the group ends up making about 25,000 identification cards.

“We do common access cards, which are held by people who actually work on base, whether that’s active duty, civilian or contractors,” Kirkhart said. “We deal with retiree ID cards and dependent ID cards, specific for the dependent of active duty or retired personnel.”

Flight Chief Sgt. Julie Hayes added that, for 100% disabled veterans, the flight works to provide them with benefits and entitlement.

“They are entitled to certain privileges, for example, like using the gym, also commissary-base exchange and things like that,” Hayes said. “Once they are deemed 100% by the VA, them and their dependent are issued a military identification card.”

The personnel flight’s force management section specializes in military evaluations for officers and enlisted members. They also work with military awards.

“If anybody is eligible for decorations at different points throughout their career, we process those and send them off to the Air Force Personnel Center to upload them into the member’s record,” Kirkhart said.

Other responsibilities of the group include managing deployment issues, as well as maintaining accountability and casualty support as it pertains to the people they serve.

Hayes mentioned the introduction of new missions at Robins, the exit of JSTARS and the personnel matters that have come along as a result.

“Most of the people that are in the 461st [Air Control Wing] are either getting assignments to new bases, separating or retiring, and we deal with all of that,” Kirkhart added. “So, that’s a huge influx of work that we have to do in support of that because each person who gets an assignment gets an assignment counselor, and they guide them through all the requirements. Basically, we’re adding about 600 additional assignments on top of what our normal workload would be with that divestment.”

The Military Personnel Flight is made up of about 30 military members and 9 civilian members coming from various types of backgrounds, but a majority of them have a work history specializing in personnel.

“When each Airman comes to us, they have to do career development with their profession and military careers,” Hayes said. “We can put them in places where they’ll shine in that development.

“Like we may have an Airman that has a specific skill that fits perfectly in assignments, so we’ll progress them in there. And then every two years, we’ll change them out, that way they’re progressing their career and having that diverse background.”

Both Kirkhart and Hayes wanted to give a shoutout to two members of the flight: Senior Airman Megan Mobley and Richard Colquitt. Mobley was recently recognized as the 78th Air Base Wing Airman of the Quarter, while Colquitt was recognized as Civilian of the Quarter.

Before serving at Robins, Hayes worked at Thule Air Base in Greenland. Kirkhart has served as flight commander at Robins since October 2021, coming from a section commander personnel position within security forces.

Hayes added that she enjoys volunteering with the Houston County Humane Society. Several others within the flight work with Houston County Habitat for Humanity, coach local youth sports and volunteer as mentors for underprivileged youth.

Visit https://robinsfss.com/mpf/ for more information on the work of the Military Personnel Flight, to book appointments for ID cards and more.

Also, two kiosks are located on base — at the BX and the base library — where people can go to submit their information, take their picture for identification cards and skip the line they may have had to wait in otherwise. There’s usually a five-day turnaround before the flight will reach out for folks to come and pick up their new card.

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