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Our ever-changing Air Force: the CSC

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Daniel Phelps
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  One of the only things one sees as consistent throughout their career in the Air Force is change. We are constantly looking at what we are doing and trying to find ways to improve on what we do. Whether it is a way to make things more cost effective, creating a more comfortable and effective uniform or simply making things more efficient through time or manpower, we enhance our mission.

Whenever changes are made to improve things, adjustments always need to be made. With adjustments, comes time to adapt. One of the areas in the Air Force that is currently being reworked is the consolidated client service center.

The consolidation of the CSC at Shaw began in November and officially became a shop on Nov. 16, according to Staff Sgt. Jonathan Wilson, 20th Communication Squadron operations flight communications focal point supervisor. This has been the largest consolidation of communications in two decades and affects everyone on every Air Force base.

The reason for the consolidation was to give a more centralized pool of knowledge and give a wider skill set to choose from for deployments, according to Sergeant Wilson.
Before the consolidation, communications was split into several different shops including radio, the help desk, Functional System Administrator/Client Systems Administrator and job control, added Sergeant Wilson. Now all of these have been combined into one shop.

"There used to be several different numbers to call for comm issues," he said, "now there is only one central number to call."

There are several advantages that have come with the consolidation, Sergeant Wilson explained. One being that it makes them more effective in the field. Training has also become more unified, and consolidation allows for utilization of the best of different worlds.

"One of the biggest benefits of the consolidation," said Senior Airman Randi Spain, 20th Communications Squadron operations flight client service technician, "is that it is much easier to get hold of who they need."

"Before the consolidation, everything was disjointed, now everything is streamlined," she added.

The evolution of the CSC is not complete yet, remarked Sergeant Wilson. As with any changes that happen, adjustment must be made and challenges overcome.

One challenge with the consolidation is that people from each of the career fields now have to learn new jobs, so at the time not everyone is knowledgeable yet, he commented. Airmen spend extra time for training to learn new skills. However, they are happy because they are ahead of the expected learning time.

Each group did their job a little bit different, so there is a little bit of a learning curve to overcome with training, noted Airman Spain. They are still in the training process right now, so for the time things might run a little slower, but they are starting to pick up.

Sergeant Wilson added, some of the other challenge they are facing right now are with the troops having to define their new role, having come from different individual shops and trying to decide priority with work orders for computer support.

The troops have a little trouble figuring out what they are supposed to do, Sergeant Wilson pointed out. However, with the consolidation, all the skill sets now work together, so getting stumped over a problem is not as big of an issue.

Before the consolidation, there was a CSA/FSA in each area to handle all computer issues, said Airman Spain. Since all the computer issues come to the same shop, prioritizing issues can sometimes be a little tricky.

"The biggest thing we ask right now is for patience," said Sergeant Wilson, "with any change it takes time to adjust and work out the kinks."

As with any change that happens in the Air Force, it takes time to adjust, and once adjustments are complete, comm folks say the CSC will be a smoother, more efficient running shop.