By Chuck Paone
ESC Public Affairs

The massive realignment of the Electronic Systems Center into wings, groups and squadrons continues to move forward. This week, all civilian positions were formally transferred so that they show up on the new unit manning documents.

The center successfully transferred all military positions back in early March. In addition, military personnel occupying the positions have been transferred, too, so that both “spaces” and “faces” line up in their new homes.

ESC had taken steps to realign civilians to their new organizations in the civilian personnel data systems in April and May but was delayed until now, said Col. Bruce Johnson, ESC’s director of Plans and Programs.

Bugs in the new Manpower Planning and Execution System (MPES), as well as problems with the interface between MPES and the civilian personnel system, have hindered this effort for months. Members of the Plans and Programs Directorate, 66th Mission Support Squadron Manpower and Organization Flight, and the 66th Civilian Personnel Flight have been working closely to overcome these issues for Hanscom’s ESC employees.

The ESC Personnel Directorate has been working with host personnel offices on similar efforts for employees at ESC’s geographically separated units.

“This is another big step,” said Colonel Johnson. “There’s a tremendous amount of detail and behind-the-scenes effort that goes into making these things happen. Mapping and coding people into the right places and making sure everything matches up, so that no one has any documentation or pay problems, is time-consuming, sometimes frustrating work, but it’s absolutely critical.”

Physical movement of personnel, where necessary, has also lagged a bit behind original schedules. The moves depend largely on the final acceptance of the Building 1614 Phase II Renovation Project, which has taken longer than anticipated, according to Bob Zongol of the Plans and Programs Directorate.

“Once the final portion of that building is ready for occupancy, we can move the people scheduled to go there, freeing up space for others to move, and then everything can flow,” he said. “It’s sort of a domino effect.”

Another major component of the movement plan is to consolidate the center staff into Building 1618. This will allow consolidation of wing personnel in other buildings, especially 1600, 1612 and 1624.

While all this is going on, the center will keep working with Air Force Materiel Command, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, and with the Air Staff on the second Organization Change Request package.

The second package, which ESC sent to command April 21, would add the remaining squadrons to the organization. The initial package cleared by the Air Staff last December established the four acquisition wings, 12 groups and two of the squadrons.

“The second OCR package puts the rest of the branches on the tree,” said Jan Fitz of Plans and Programs, who has chaired the Integrated Product Team that built, and is now executing, the reorganization’s Transition Plan.

Ms. Fitz estimates that the second OCR will be approved by early fall. She also expects a third package, submitted May 13, to be approved by then. That package standardizes the center staff, following a formula set by AFMC.

By the time the final packages are approved, the center will also know the numbering scheme attached to the wings, groups and squadrons. Until recently, it was not clear that the new units would receive numbers. They have been operating, to date, under names that expressed the unifying theme of the organization, such as Battle Management Systems.

Now, it’s likely that each wing will have a unique number followed by a common name -- for instance, the 551st Electronic Systems Wing.

“Historical numbers will be used wherever possible, but we’re not sure exactly how they will be applied,” said Capt. Deb Butler, Manpower and Organization Flight commander. “We believe the numbers will relate in some portion of the numbering scheme.”

Along with the numbers, the wings will inherit the lineage, honors and, sometimes, a historic emblem, said ESC Historian Dr. Ruth Liebowitz. Once all of that is in place, the center will officially stand up the units.

“Certainly it is taking some time to remold the center, but we’re already seeing dividends, and it’ll only improve from here,” Colonel Johnson said. “I think there’s a very bright future ahead for ESC, one that will reward us for all the hard work put into this reorganization.”