Travis-based call center adds Andrews to rotation

Published Dec. 13, 2013
By Nick DeCicco
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Travis' newly renamed United States Air Force Telephone Operator Consolidated Call Center-West added its 17th installation, Joint Base Andrews, Md., Dec. 5 to the roster of locations for which it provides base operator services.

Andrews marks the center's third different major command for which its operators receive calls, joining all 10 Air Mobility Command bases and six Air Combat Command installations.

The addition of Andrews boosts the center, previously known as the AMC/ACC TOCCC, above 260,000 calls per month for its 39 operators, who work around the clock, according to Colin Baldwin, 60th Communications Squadron information technology specialist.

Baldwin said the operators answer 80 percent of calls in 30 seconds or less and 99 percent are answered inside two minutes.

Part of what distinguishes the mission is the center's partnership with the National Industries for the Blind and Solano Diversified Services. The majority of the operators are visually impaired and the rest suffer some sort of physical disability.

A trio of software programs aid the operators. While listening to incoming calls in one ear, operators are given information in the other thanks to the Job Access With Speech program, which tells them what the computer is doing. The T-Metrics program allows them to search info about extensions and phone numbers for each specific base. The last, ZoomText, can enlarge software as much as 600 percent for the legally blind.

On a recent morning, Mary Beltran, USAF TOCCC-West operator, fielded calls from across the country, including one from overseas who dialed a Defense Switched network number to speak to a loved one. Beltran said she gets satisfaction from being able to connect with people as well as being able to help them conduct business or speak to those special to them.

She also uses a braille notepad for notes about the different bases, including variations in the names of their services. One example she gave was how one base may refer to a location as its passenger terminal, another calls it passenger services and yet another knows it as PAX.

Beltran said the operators work together to handle such discrepancies as well as the mass of information the job requires. Despite its challenges, Beltran said she enjoys her work.

"I like doing what I do," Beltran said. "It gives me purpose every morning."
Baldwin said that to someone calling, the process should be transparent regardless of which base they're calling.

"If they call Charleston, they think they're talking to a Charleston operator," he said.

Because of the efficiency and specialty of the center's mission, many distinguished visitors frequent the center. In August, Acting Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning gave a coin to all of the operators working during his visit, Baldwin said.

Stood up in March 2010, the center consolidated all AMC base operator missions at Travis. Initially estimated to save $500,000 per year, the cost-savings estimate approaches $5 million for the three MAJCOMs, Baldwin said.

"I'm proud to be a part of this operation," he said. "I don't have a bad day compared to how well they overcome their impairments to help men and women of the armed forces."