JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas –
Feedback Fridays is a weekly forum that aims 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 jbsapublicaffairs@gmail.com using the subject line “Feedback Fridays.” Questions will be further researched and published as information becomes available.
Q. On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, the base was locked down and personnel were instructed to shelter in place.
The message was passed mainly by word-of-mouth and instead of everyone getting notified rapidly, the news of the incident trickled out.
My question is why wasn’t the Giant Voice utilized? Isn’t that what it’s there for?
A. Thank you for your question. On June 9 at 12:21 p.m., the 502d Air Base Wing command post utilized the AtHoc and the Giant Voice system for JBSA-Lackland.
All 43 voice towers registered for JBSA-Lackland were active and relayed the Giant Voice notification of a lockdown. At 12:22 p.m. local, the AtHoc message notified 84,123 military members and dependents that there was a lockdown occurring at JBSA-Lackland which was disseminated to recipients.
The emergency situation was localized to JBSA-Lackland, however, in accordance with local guidance as well as Department of Defense Instruction 6055.17 (DOD Emergency Management Program), the 502d ABW command post used AtHoc to reach all JBSA recipients as they are listed in AtHoc.
In doing so, the 502d ABW command post was ensuring the safety of members that were at JBSA-Lackland during the ongoing situation and members that were otherwise transitioning between the installations.
As the situation changed and moved to a modified lockdown and then to all-clear, the 502d ABW command post kept base personnel notified via AtHoc.
For those individuals that did not receive an AtHoc notification to one or more of the mediums of notification (i.e., work phone, home phone, DOD mobile phone number, personal mobile number, mobile app, duty cell text, work email address, personal email address, or desktop application), please work with your military unit and the respective military branch to be added to AtHoc. If you already have AtHoc, please verify that your information is up-to-date and current in AtHoc.
We also encourage our JBSA community to follow https://www.facebook.com/JointBaseSanAntonio/ for up-to-date base information, or during times of emergency, call the straight talk line at 210-466- 4630.
Q. The 15-item-or-less self-checkout at JBSA-Randolph Commissary has two checkout stations, with one being out of order since February.
You would think that with a multimillion-dollar operation like the commissary, it would have been fixed or replaced by now. Because of this problem, the line is often too long. Thank you.
A. Thank you for your feedback. We are aware of the problem with the self-checkouts. These are old units and have been going through repairs continuously. Unfortunately, they keep breaking down. To address this problem, we have fast-tracked software and hardware upgrades that are scheduled to start in early September.
In the meantime, the store has opened more regular lines to offset the longer customer wait times. We appreciate our customer's understanding on this matter, as we know it has caused some inconvenience.