Feedback Fridays

Feedback Fridays are weekly forums that aim to connect the 502d Air Base Wing with members of the Joint Base San Antonio community. Questions are collected during commander's calls, town hall meetings and throughout the week. If you have a question or concern, please send an email to RandolphPublicAffairs@us.af.mil using the subject line "Feedback Fridays." Questions will be further researched and published as information becomes available.

Personnel Issues

Q. Are civilians allowed physical training time? If so, must civilian PT be taken during the lunch hour?

A. I'm a big proponent of physical fitness, so great question! Per Air Force Instruction 36-815, civilian employees may be excused for up to three hours each week for fitness. These workout hours are normally approved in conjunction with lunch breaks, but all civilian employees are encouraged to work with their chain of command to identify the times that work best for your mission and unit. Again, great question!

Q. I have a civilian tuition question. I have completed my master’s degree and attended school while an employee with JBSA. Will the government pay any of my student loan?

A. Thank you for the question, as this is a great benefit! The Student Loan Repayment Program can be utilized as a recruitment or retention tool for highly qualified personnel. The entitlement is for up to $60,000 (not to exceed $10,000 per year), but must be approved through the organization up to the Civilian Personnel Officer. There must be written justification that explains how the unique qualifications of the individual, or the special needs of the organization, requires and support this type of incentive. If an employee receives this incentive, there is a requirement to sign a written service agreement for at least 3 years (could be more depending on the amount being paid). Individuals who fail to complete their agreements must reimburse the Department of Defense for the entire amount of all benefits received. Please contact our CPO for more information.

Installation & Facilities

Q. Are there plans to update our Internet?

A. Thank you for your question. The 502d Communications Squadron has a few initiatives they are working to improve customer experience in regards to the network. Recently, they completed an email migration to the cloud on JBSA-Randolph and JBSA-Lackland which increased every user's email box to 99 gigabytes! This is about 1,000 times the amount of email storage the average user had and prevents the pesky “mailbox is full” error message. Additionally, the 502d CS is working on an AF Pathfinder initiative to resolve latency problems identified by 10 bases across the AF, which includes JBSA-Randolph. The team is led by SAF/A6 and consists of personnel from numerous organizations. They are working to optimize the network starting from the desktop and working all the way to the commercial internet. For us non-tech types, there are numerous pieces of equipment and stages that your data has to flow through between your computer and the World Wide Web. Any one of them may be the cause of the latency and many of them are out of our direct control. The lessons learned from this Pathfinder will be applied across the AF, but updating those lessons learned will take some time to complete. In the meantime, we have made great progress in optimizing the parts of the local base infrastructure that we control. Finally, a reminder from last week's Q&A, JBSA-Lackland and Randolph are installing Second Generation Wireless Local Area Networking (2GWLAN) which connects to the Air Force network while giving wireless capability for users, but that capability will be limited and must be funded by your organization.

Q. Are there any plans for new dorms for permanent party at any of our bases across JBSA?

A. Thank you for your question! As of now, we have one new dorm MILCON project at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston for the Unaccompanied Enlisted Personnel Housing (UEPH) Barracks. We are continuing to evaluate our permanent party dormitories and barracks for future projects as more funding becomes available.

Q. Can we get new beds or new mattress toppers for the permanent party dorms?

A. A great question and I’m so pleased to tell you that 1,400 mattress toppers have been ordered and were scheduled to be delivered Oct. 22! We plan to distribute these new mattress toppers between permanent party in JBSA-Fort Sam Houston barracks and JBSA-Lackland dormitories, as well as the technical training dormitories on Lackland. We hope these new mattress toppers provide a better night’s sleep to all of our Soldiers and Airmen across JBSA!

Q. The parks on Fort Sam Houston near housing are not handicap compliant per the American Disability Act (ADA). Is there any conversation as to fixing this to support our children and wounded warriors?

A. Thank you for your attention in this matter and for your concern for our children and wounded warriors. A conversation is being had, as this is important for all of us to resolve. As of right now, the most recent Area Development Plan for JBSA-Fort Sam Houston has recommended that designs be pursued for improving parks, streetscapes, pedestrian network and key intersections. The 502d Civil Engineering Group will be working with the 502d Contracting Squadron to put this design work on contract later in Fiscal Year 2019. We will be sure to include measures that bring our parks into compliance with the ADA requirements.