Readiness office helps with challenges of military life

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Monica Dalberg
  • 514th Air Mobility Wing public affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  When Airmen embark on new chapters of their military lives such as deployments or retirements, they must often prepare by completing paperwork, training classes and counseling sessions. There is also significant burden placed upon their immediate family members.

The 514th Air Mobility Wing's Airman & Family Readiness Office helps facilitate those preparations and ease those burdens.

"So many times we see Airmen in crisis, and they feel overwhelmed and helpless and don't know where to turn," said Judith Pates, the director of the A&FR office.

Pates said that she and her staff will provide guidance, resources and information to those Airmen and their families.

"They come back months later and say, 'This is what I've done to improve my situation,'" she said. "It's a nice feeling to get that feedback. It really is."

Many agencies, both on and off base, are available to assist members with specific needs, and readiness staff will work with individuals to connect them with the right resources.

"We try to cater our programs toward the needs of our reservists," she said.
Pates said that many Airmen come to the office to seek help with employment and personal financial issues that are affecting them and their families.

The readiness office has many programs and classes that can help. The office's staff recommends several websites to help servicemembers and their family members with their job search, such as usajobs.gov, careeronestop.org and onetonline.org. Some of the sites provide a list of resume-building skills and civilian jobs associated with the specific military career fields.

In addition to job-search tools, the readiness office offers assistance with resume- writing, interview coaching, assessing skills and interests to find compatible employment, and dressing for success.

"Sometimes we have Airmen who are not sure what they want to do, and this is their first time searching for civilian employment," Pates said. "We encourage them to go to job fairs, which can give them experience in meeting potential employers, handing out resumes and interviewing."

Pre-separation counseling is conducted quarterly and mandated through Pates' office for retiring traditional reservists, air reserve technicians and members coming off orders of 180 days or more.

Airmen are often most interested in learning about their Veterans Administration and Tricare benefits, she said, and the counseling sessions typically include representatives from those agencies.

Militaryonesource.com is another free website Pates recommends, and she said the site has information on anything from filing taxes to finding pet care to writing a research paper. Additionally, the site's consultants can confidentially refer users for a limited amount of free counseling sessions related to short-term non-medical concerns.

The readiness office supports outreach activities such as a food pantry for Airmen in need and a Key Spouse Program to help families of deployed Airmen. The office also helps support the children of the wing's Airmen by providing gifts during the holidays and blankets for babies.

The Airman & Family Readiness Office can be reached at 754-8229.