November is Month of the Military Family, which places a spotlight on the sacrifices and contributions made by military families in the interest of our nation’s defense. The Airman and Family Readiness Center works year-round to ensure these families have access to any support services they need.
Technical Sgt. Justin Rhodes is a Readiness non-commissioned officer within Airman and Family Readiness and works on pre-deployment and post-deployment briefings, as well as deployed spouses events. This includes teaming up with Operation Home Front for an upcoming holiday toy drive, as well as the backpack brigade and the KUDOS mock deployment line for children that will be held during the Month of the Military Child in April.
The A&FRC can be reached Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 739-2747.
What are the most important ways your agency serves Team Tinker?
“We look out for the families while service members are deployed year round. We help families with anything. We are a helping/referral agency and we’re here to help or find the answers for any need to make the lives of service members and their families easier so they can focus on the mission. We work with Air Force Aid to provide emergency financial assistance; Airman’s Attic, a food pantry for anyone in need; career focus classes with a quarterly job club; relocation assistance and all of the classes for transition from the military.”
Why do you think this particular helping agency is so valuable to the community?
“Tinker has a very high-ops tempo for the large units and frequent deployments create stress. That’s why we do our pre-deployment briefings to go over the resources and tips. We also have counselors here because frequent deployments are one of our biggest difficulties and it adds stress to every area of life and we want to help alleviate that.”
What are the common misconceptions about your agency?
“A lot of single Airmen think we don’t have resources for them. All of our resources, transition and self-help classes are also available to them. I bet we help just as many single Airmen as we do those with families.”
What’s your favorite part about working in your position?
“I like the ‘helping people’ aspect. The deployment briefs seem like just another checkmark to most deployers, but they are designed to help them and their families. This something I’m getting into and helping people has made (the position) better. The toy drives and events are the more fun part of it. Even if I’m at the front desk and an Airman comes in with a question, I just like helping them find that answer to make their life easier. That’s the whole goal.”