News

Reservist travels more than 6,000 miles to serve

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  Reservists in the 446th Airlift Wing hail from across the country, although a vast majority resides in the Puget Sound area.  For many, the commute to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington for Reserve duty is less than an hour.  Not so for a loadmaster with the 728th Airlift Squadron.

Tech. Sgt. Heather Normand, a 12-year Air Force Reserve veteran, travels about 6,735 miles to serve here. 

Normand's civilian job has her working at an embassy overseas, where she is a contracted flight dispatcher and coordinator.

"My employer, DynCorp International, holds a number government contracts.  I'm on a team of three at an embassy in Southwest Asia where we do all the VIP flights within the country and basic passenger movement for Department of State employees and USAID (the United States Agency for International Development)," said Normand. 

Although she's been in her current contract position for just over two years, Normand has been commuting from overseas for three and a half years, having served under a different contract previously.

In order to meet her Reserve duty obligations, Normand returns to McChord Field every 90 days and stays for about 30 or 40 days each time.

"Everybody on contract (at the embassy) has a 90/30 rotation.  So instead of going on vacation, I come here.  I purchase my own airline tickets, but my company provides a travel stipend, so I always try to find the best travel deals out there," she said.

Normand plans ahead to get the most out of her trips to McChord, according to her supervisor, Chief Master Sgt. Dave Kist, 728th AS chief loadmaster.

"She's extremely proactive," said Kist. "Before she returns to McChord, she'll work with us and finds out what the training schedule is so we can maximize her efficiency."

The AFRC policy limiting rescheduled UTA duty to 16 periods per quarter is a challenge, but Normand sometimes gets her rotational break to span two quarters.

"I'll make up any UTAs I've missed, I'll do any UTAs that are scheduled while I'm home, and try to fit in five to 10 days of annual tour days," she said.

According to Kist, Normand gets all her training caught up and is mission ready in about two weeks.

"She does better than some folks who live a lot closer because she does such a good job maximizing her training opportunities," said Kist.

Normand's job as a contractor was one she originally scoffed at when the opportunity was presented to her.  Previously an air reserve technician, Normand was one of the few who fell to the reduction in force enacted a couple of years ago.

"I was placed in a straight civilian job, but it was at a lower pay grade and there was limited opportunity for promotion.  So I wasn't going to stay in that position for long. Then the opportunity to do contracting came along," she said.  "At first I was like, pffff, being a civilian in (SWA) that would be silly.  But the pay is good, especially for working only 50 percent of the year."

Normand doesn't consider her long distance commuting to be a permanent situation, but she is fully committed to continuing her service in the Air Force Reserve.