Air Force continues to move to E-mail for Life system Published Dec. 4, 2009 By Kendahl Johnson 78 ABW/PA ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- The Air Force is continuing to provide constant e-mail addresses to all Air Force employees, one that users will have during their entire careers with the Air Force. The consolidated e-mail system is part of the E-mail for Life initiative, which the Air Force Communications Agency kicked off in 2007. The aim of the initiative is to save money, jumpstart the consolidation of the service's multiple e-mail systems and provide senior leaders the capability to e-mail every Air Force member directly. Airmen will eventually be able to access their e-mail account from any computer with Internet access and a Common Access Card reader. A user in the consolidated network will be able to log into a computer on any base. According to Pat McCants, an IT specialist in the 78th Air Base Wing's Communications Directorate, most users here already have already been assigned an "@us.af.mil" e-mail address. E-mail sent to that account is automatically forwarded to their Robins user account. One advantage to consolidated addresses is that an Airman no longer has to go for a time without e-mail or network access when moving from one base to another, and the Airman won't lose any messages since the e-mail account won't be deleted as part of a PCS order, as it is now. Consolidating e-mail is part of a larger project started three years ago by the Air Force Network Integration Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., to create a centralized computer network. Having one network was primarily a cost saving measure; it allows the Air Force to cut down on manpower and equipment. It also improves security and will better protect computers from cyber attacks. No specific date has been set for the migration of Robins to this network, known as AFNet. Once all bases have migrated to AFNet, everyone associated with the Air Force -- some 845,000 airmen, civilians and contractors -- will drop their base-specific e-mail addresses and use only their @us.af.mil. AFCA officials anticipate this change to be fully in place by summer 2013 if not sooner. It will take one to five months to complete each base, depending on the number of users that have to be migrated. "The timeline hasn't been set for our migration, but it's a ways off," said Chris Hortman, chief of network operations for the 78th Air Base Wing's Communications Directorate. "It will probably be at least a year or two down the road."