Eglin concerns heard at Caring for People forum

  • Published
  • By Kevin Gaddie
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Caring for People Forum held April 11 gave military and civilian personnel an opportunity to voice their ideas on improving Eglin's programs and resources.

The forum was made up of 92 participants, which included males; females; officer and enlisted from all services; retired military; single; married; with children; without children; single parents; married military-to-military and teenage dependents.

The participants were divided into eight working groups. Each group was assigned a quality of life category. The categories were: family support; deployment support; school support; special needs support; health and wellness support; single airman support and single parent support.

Each group was asked to brainstorm eight discussion topics within their assigned categories. Each topic was to include recommendations for solutions. Each group then narrowed the topics down to their two most important. The topics were presented by a briefer in each group to forum participants, who collectively voted for a top issue in each category.

Finally, the winning topics were presented to the Community Action Information Board, made up of senior enlisted personnel and officers and chaired by Col. Sal Nodjomian, the 96th Air Base Wing commander.

The CAIB addressed each topic with the forum, and will determine which issues to resolve at the base level and which issues will be forwarded to the major command level.

Staff Sgt. Karen Ainsley, the command chief executive at the 53rd Wing, was in the family support "A" working group.

"I think we had good discussions, addressed a variety of issues and came up with a good topic, which will hopefully be resolved at the base level," she said.

Senior Master Sgt. Wes Joyner, the squadron superintendent with the 96th Ground Combat Training Squadron, was a member of the deployment support group.

"Many spouses face different challenges while their military husband or wife is deployed," he said. "We discussed and isolated a few of those issues and presented our best one to the CAIB."

Nodjomian emphasized the importance of the forum and thanked the participants for their spirited participation.

"Change begins with forums like this," he said. "Here is where we distill out the rumor, get rid of the hearsay, take fact-based items and address the most important ones. From here, we'll either solve them locally or forward them to headquarters. Thank you for your time and commitment to making Eglin a better place."