Senior leaders have designated July 2009 through July 2010 as the Year of the Air Force Family, maintaining their commitment and attention to Airmen and their families as a top priority. Air Force officials launched a new Web site to meet the social and informational needs of Airmen, civilians, retirees and their families.
The entire Air Force family: all Airmen, married and single; spouses; children; Air Force civilians; and retirees are invited to log on to http://www.usafservices.com, the official
community Web site of the Air Force. The Web site enables users to add friends, send messages and update their personal profiles to notify family and friends about
themselves.
Locally, resources are devoted to keeping families and their loved ones informed. In a year's time, Westover hosted eight predeployment Yellow Ribbon events. The congressionally-legislated program is designed to make sure deploying servicemembers and their families are aware of what is available to them. Most of the help is free and confidential, said Maj. Kelly E. Hosey, 439th Mission Support Squadron commander.
A service member and their family typically attend one pre-deployment event 30 days before deployment. Three postdeployment events follow. The first event takes place 30 days after returning, another at three months and a final at six months.
Each event is geared to highlight different topics than the event they attended previously making the event more of an opportunity for the service member to develop an understanding of the assistance that is available.
For more information on the Yellow Ribbon program, call Tech. Sgt. Christine Hatfield at (413) 557-3862.
The Airmen and Family Readiness Center is located at 100 Walker Avenue, near the Base Ellipse. The center's phone number is 413-557-3024. Click on the Westover web site for more information on the Airmen and Family Readiness Center.
The link is:
www.westoverafrc.org/index