News

Morale system undergoes changes

  • Published
  • By Holly Birchfield
  • 78 ABW/PA
Robins Air Force Base, Ga. --  The Air Force has a new system that will help ensure deployed Airmen get voice-to-voice time with their loved ones.

The Automated Health and Morale System is a personal identification number-based program generated at Air Force headquarters that makes calling home from the deployed location easier.

Staff Sgt. Brian Dunlap, a project manager in the 78th Communications Group and AHAMS project manager at Robins, said before, Airmen were either not getting to take full advantage of their 30-minute per week phone time due to weaknesses in the operator-based system or getting more than their share of talk time.

Now, the personal identification number-driven AHAMS tracks minutes used by the Airman to ensure minutes aren't lost or exceeded.

"Before the member leaves the duty location at Robins, they can write an e-mail to a general e-mail box that's monitored by some people in our telephone office and request a PIN," he said. "These PIN managers go back into the server and create a PIN that's unique and is also a PIN for life."

Sergeant Dunlap said Airmen can dial a number and enter their PIN, all without the involvement of an operator.

Sergeant Dunlap said the system is a good checks and balances for the morale call program.

"A lot of time, the morale call system in the past has been abused," he said. "Plus, the workload with the operators can't monitor every single phone call to make sure (they're) half hour calls. It's expensive, obviously, calling from Iraq back to the States, so some people can go unmonitored and talk for hours. The other side of this coin is that some people feel that they didn't get their full half hour. With this system, it's fool proof."

Ariel Gonzalez, Robins's Voice Switching specialist for AHAMS and a quality assurance evaluator for the Base Telephone System, said calls are queued with prompts that let servicemembers know when their time is about to run out on a call.

Once time is up, the system shuts the call down, Sergeant Dunlap said.

The program, brought about by Air Force headquarters, is a phased effort.

In the first phase, PINs will be established and provided.

"Right now, it's locally managed," Sergeant Dunlap said. "The deployed member at Robins would have to write an e-mail to the e-mail box where managers check it and issue the PIN."

In Phase II, AHAMS will be consolidated in a specific location.

"In Phase II, the equipment doesn't go anywhere, but the management of it goes to a consolidated headquarters where the member would log into a portal and request a PIN," Sergeant Dunlap said.

Sergeant Dunlap said the Air Force expects to have the system fully implemented in 2009.

Mr. Gonzalez said AHAMS will be a great benefit to military members and their families.

"The nice thing about this system is that it's completely off base and it keeps track of how often you call and how many minutes you spend," he said. "The system will allow one 30-minute call per week or you can make 30 one-minute phone calls per week. The clock doesn't start until the connection is made."