Field guidance helps ensure seamless personnel, pay support

by Tech. Sgt. Steve Grever
Air Force Personnel Center

7/26/2012 - JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO - RANDOLPH, Texas (AFNS) -- Because of guidance released July 24, base-level military personnel and finance sections will be better able to seamlessly serve military members' needs during the December Military Personnel Data System upgrade, Air Force Personnel Center officials said today.

MilPDS is a records database for personnel data and actions that occur throughout every total force Airman's career. MilPDS is also used to initiate Airman pay actions, maintain Air Force accountability and strength data and support a host of interactions with other Air Force processes and systems that rely on personnel data.

Air Force Personnel Operations Agency officials here are upgrading and transferring MilPDS to the Defense Information Systems Agency's Defense Enterprise Computing Center in December. The upgrade project is scheduled to take about 23 days to complete and MilPDS will not be available during the upgrade phase.

To help prevent problems, AFPC fielded a guidance package that includes detailed information and instructions on processing critical total force personnel and pay transactions during the MilPDS upgrade. It also includes tailored briefings that MPSs will use to educate base leadership and Airmen.

"We collaborated with our total force partners to develop Air Force guidance that highlights critical timelines and processes local personnel and pay offices must follow to ensure Airmen are taken care of during the upgrade," said Lt. Col. Sean McElhaney Pahia, the Total Force Service Center-San Antonio operations support division chief.

The upgrade will ensure MilPDS performs at optimum levels to give personnelists, pay representatives and other MilPDS users access the data they need to complete customer transactions, said Anthony Delgado, AFPOA's MilPDS R12 functional manager.

In the coming months, Air Force officials will release additional information and guidance to the Air Force's manpower, personnel, services and pay communities and total force Airmen to continue to educate them on how the service will perform critical personnel and pay tasks during the upgrade.