Making appointments can help save time

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class John D. Strong II
  • 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  The 49th Force Support Squadron Military Personnel Flight has a new method of distributing and fixing the military, civilian and dependant identification cards to reduce the amount of time it takes for their customers to receive them.

The Rapid System 7.2 program came into use at Holloman in early October 2007 and saw an increase in the security measures to obtain a new ID card. This resulted in longer wait time for customers.

"Two forms of identification are now required to receive a new ID card and all of your fingerprints are recaptured so these things increase the time of the overall process," said Mr. Jasper Lowe Site Manager for the 49th Force Support Squadron. "We can't compromise security for time convenience but we are trying to make the process as smooth and quick as possible."

The old process of obtaining a new ID card took approximately 8-10 minutes, with the new system it now takes19 minutes said Mr. Lowe.

"Though a 19 minute wait time seems a long time to receive a new ID card with an appointment, the wait time without an appointment could be up to two and half hours," said 1st Lt. Brent Smith Chief of the Military Personnel Element for the 49th Force Support Squadron.

The system processes three people an hour and a total of 42 people a day here. It takes 15 minutes to log off and on the system and military members are not allowed to operate the system said Mr. Lowe.

The Department of Defense assigns the number of ID card systems to each military installation and the DOD has assigned two to Holloman based on the population that the MPF services said Lieutenant Smith.

"After having an ACC-wide meeting, every base that is running the 7.2 system, our wait times on Holloman are better than ACC average and they were happy with our numbers" said Lieutenant Smith. "ACC might be happy but we aren't happy because our customers aren't happy. We still see a way for us to improve the system and find a better way to take care of the Holloman population."

"We need to bring our appointment ratio up, if we can bring the ratio up it will lower the wait time overall," said Lieutenant Smith.

The MPF will be dedicating the first five duty days of the month to retirees and newly promoted airman; starting the sixth duty day of the month every Wednesday and Thursday will be dedicated to dependants.