Altus AFB hosts back-to-school event

Published Aug. 7, 2015
By Airman 1st Class Megan E. Acs
97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

Altus Air Force Base, Okla. -- Children of Airmen celebrated the coming school year with some help from two organizations, Aug. 5.

Operation Homefront is a national organization that supports military members through a variety of programs, including the annual, nationwide Back-to-School Brigade which provides children of military members E-1 through E-6 with backpacks and school supplies to help ease the financial situations of military families while their dependents get ready to enter a new school year.

"The reason Operation Homefront was founded was because after 9/11, we saw a need for financial assistance for military families," said Amanda Saltiel, programs coordinator for Operation Homefront. "So the organization as a whole has reached out to help provide financial assistance, backpacks, morale programs, and other ways to show support for military members and their families."

Dollar Tree has sponsored the Back-to-School Brigade for seven years and donated more than $5 million of school supplies in 2014 to military dependents.

For Altus AFB, which falls under the Great Plains region, the local field office for Operation Homefront is located in Lawton.

"I'm a parent, so I know how expensive school supplies can be. It can be a burden, especially when your spouse is away from you," said Saltiel. "Programs like this can take some of that stress off and can definitely help start the school year off a little easier. It's a great way to show our military families that they're wanted in the community and that we want to help them."

They Serve Too, another company that sponsors backpacks and school supplies to military dependents also had a representative present. Unlike Operation Homefront, They Serve Too donates to military members of all pay grades and covered all senior NCO and officer dependents at the event.

Operation Deploying Family followed Operation Homefront at the Freedom Community Center and was open to all military dependents.

"We do this so the spouses and children of military members get a feel for what it's like for the service member to prepare for a deployment," said Nathan Covington, 97th Force Support squadron school liaison officer. "We had the children go through a mobility line and had briefers and guests from finance, the legal office, the family support center, the chaplain corps, the logistic readiness squadron and security forces."

The briefers from the legal office did a will and power of attorney for the children and finance handed out play money as a sort of travel voucher for the children. As each child moved through the mock mobility line, the different agencies signed them off on their individual deployment checklists.

LRS staged a mobility gear area, where dependents got a feel for the gear and equipment military personnel must have while deployed and security forces members showcased the weapons used to defend downrange. Additional giveaways were presented to the children, including binoculars, canteens and dog tags with their names.

"We also had individual fingerprint identification cards we put together for the dependent children that had the same information military members would have on file," said Covington. "The cards have their fingerprints, an ID picture and other things they have to identify themselves with. There's even a chart for dental records."

Once finalized, the identification cards were provided to the dependent spouses for safe keeping.

"The whole point of Operation Deploying Family is to give the dependents as much knowledge as possible to help them understand the process a military member goes through when deploying. They have to balance a lot while also trying to make sure their family is taken care of," said Covington. "Giving them this understanding of the process hopefully lightens their load and eases some of the tension the couple may have."

Participants were also treated to a tour of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft, a military working dog demonstration performed by security forces dog handlers and a free dinner.

"I brought my kids because I thought they would like to see what their dad had to do before he left. I think every relationship struggles when adjusting to deployments. Being apart is a new dynamic you just have to adjust to, especially when you have kids," said one of the attending spouses. "They're so young, but I think this has helped us understand what he does through when dealing with a deployment."