TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Traditional reservists, those most widely known, normally serve at least one weekend per month and 14 additional days per year. Air Reserve Technicians do the same, but also work full-time for their unit as a Department of Defense civilian. Additionally, Active Guard Reserve members are on active duty for 180 days or more per year. Finally, Individual Mobilization Augmentees are reservists who are assigned to active duty units, and serve at least 30 days per year.
The common thread among all Citizen Airmen is their commitment to the Air Force mission. Airman 1st Class Amber McDonald, 349th Force Support Squadron personnelist, exemplifies that commitment.
McDonald, a traditional reservist, has been on active duty orders since graduating from tech school in January 2016. Her day-to-day responsibilities are at the heart of the 349th Air Mobility Wing’s readiness for deployments, large and small.
Her typical day at the Installation Personnel Readiness office includes processing short-notice taskings, regular deployments, mobilization-to-mobilization and/or mobilization-to-volunteer swap out packages, and validating members for deployments.
What’s more, the 349th AMW supports partial mobilizations every two-to three months. All of this requires intense attention to detail, and excellent communication skills.
“We have to coordinate with unit deployment managers, Fourth Air Force, and Air Force Reserve Command headquarters,” McDonald explained. “When our workload escalates, we are on a tight suspense to get our Airmen out the door.” Regardless of the deadline, McDonald says they do what they must for mission success.
“As we are validating Citizen Airmen for different types of deployments, we are also coordinating with AFRC for mobilizations for the following year. Even while processes are in place, anything can happen until the member is actually deployed, but IPR is here for any situation that may occur.”
When McDonald isn’t directly supporting IPR, she works in customer service, creating I.D. cards for Airmen and their dependents, updating members’ Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System information, along with awards and decorations, and creating DoD Form 214s. Her job offers the opportunity to serve virtually everyone in the 349th AMW, as well as many Airmen from the 60th AMW.
McDonald, and indeed the vast majority of reservists, are anything but “weekend warriors.” They pull their weight, and then some. In fact, according to the AFRC Force Generation Center, Citizen Airmen consistently make up a quarter of the Airmen deployed around the world.
“As a Reservist you are a Citizen Airman, which means you serve part-time,” said McDonald. “Some of us are required to only work one weekend per month and two weeks a year, but with the past 14 years of engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, more often we do more duty. We get the mission done, we just do it in a different way than the active duty Air Force.”