Military pay technicians keep payroll flowing

  • Published
  • By MSgt. Jeff Walston
  • 307th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
Barksdale AFB, La. --  The door to military pay office swings open and in walks an Air Force staff sergeant. He's been a traditional reservist for a little over three months and has yet to receive a paycheck. He looks at a pay clerk and politely asks: "Why am I not getting paid?"

The staff sergeant has come to the right place. The three pay technicians in the military pay office of the 307th Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., are prepared to provide quality customer service.

The civilian employees in the military pay office are responsible for paying reservists when they complete annual tours, special tours, inactive duty for training tours, which include unit training assembly weekends, and other forms of military pay status. They also ensure reservists receive monthly entitlements while they are on deployments in active-duty status.

They are also responsible for paying monthly entitlements to those members who are deployed in Active Duty status.

"One of the most frequent issues is when a customer calls and says they didn't get paid, but they have a Leave and Earning Statement in myPay," said Christy Kimmons, a military pay technician with the 307 BW brings more than 20 years of experience to her office. "The myPay system is a great tool, and it allows a member to be proactive about their pay, but it's not being utilized or understood as well as it could be."

Although she has no military background, Kimmons brings more than 20 years of experience to her office. Where Airmen are concerned about their pay, she has seen most of the issues before, and most of the time it's just a simple problem with a simple solution, she says.

Just because an LES shows up in the myPay system, it doesn't mean a check is in the bank for the member. Each LES has a 'check date' in the upper-right corner of the statement for when the money will actually arrive in the account, Kimmons said.

For service members who want to understand more of what they see on their LES, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service website provides a downloadable guide in .pdf format to help them understand their pay and allowances.

http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/aboutpay.html

"We care about our members and want to be helpful to them," Kimmons said. "So, we are always giving advice. All activity on the member's account is reflected in the remarks section of the LES. Even, if they change their password, it's in remarks. Some questions a member may have can be answered by checking both of those sections of the LES, thus relieving unnecessary stress before they can get to the pay office."

"But, we are here to support the members, and they need the peace of mind for their military pay operations to run as smooth as possible in order to do their jobs," she said.

A frequent pay issue for former Active Duty Airmen who have reported to the Reserve is their records turnover.

"Sometimes the Active Duty records office does not transfer an Airman's records right away, so they might not be gained in our system by the time the first pay period rolls around," said Kimmons. "That's when we do a case management, by manually inputting information and sending it to DFAS. That usually solves the problem. Easy cases are from one Reserve unit to another."

Like many other jobs, for Kimmons, being a military pay technician has its challenges and rewards.

Although they are civilians working Monday through Friday, the military pay technicians at the 307 BW come in on the UTA weekends to assist when the Reserve members are there training.

"One of the most rewarding things for me is meeting new people and having the opportunity to get to know them and to hear about their families," Kimmons said. "It's nice when our members say thank you for the hard work."

"My job is important to me and the Bomb Wing," she said. "We need to pay the members correctly, so they can take care of their families and the mission."