CFP brings it all together

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jason Colbert
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  There are more than 5,000 people on Luke Air Force Base and keeping the computers up to date and running for all of them is a monumental task. But one flight on base is here to do just that.

The 56th Communications Squadron Comm Focal Point is responsible for all of the clients on base. But when they speak of clients, they aren't speaking only of people. They are also concerned with desktop and laptop computers, printers, and blackberry phones connected to the network.

"We deal with normal day-to-day client usage," said Tech. Sgt. Michele Polachek, 56th CS CFP NCO in charge. "We also work with functional system administrators to assist with their part of the job."

The CFP works with other sections in the 56th CS to ensure the base network is compliant with the Security Technical Implementation Guides set by the Defense Information Systems Agency. All of CS works together to ensure compliancy, but the CFP focuses on the clients. Inspectors are scheduled to come to see if the network, server and switches are up to snuff.

"CFP doesn't have the resources to be the first line of defense anymore," Polacheck said. "That's the enterprise service desk. We can't help without a remedy ticket from them. Users must contact the ESD either through the ESD portal or the information assurance officer."

CFP Airmen work to ensure Luke is conforming to standards. Through routine maintenance, they keep the network protected. Most don't even realize when they do it since a lot of what they do happens in the background.

Staff Sgt. Vivian Ross, client systems technician and unit deployment manager, knows how hard the CFP works to keep the base running since she has to do that as well as her UDM duties.

"We have a good crew," she said. "If there is anything I'm unable to handle on the CFP side due to being UDM, others help by taking more of the duty, so I can focus on getting our Airmen out the door."

And getting Airmen out the door on deployments is a frequent endeavor. Currently, the CFP is operating with a severe manning deficiency due to deployments and other taskings.

"I am proud of my Airmen for maintaining operations with less than half of our manning," Polachek said. "At some point, every client that is on the network will be touched by either the CFP or another FSA on the base, which we trained."

For more information or computer support from the CFP, call 623-856-4400 to contact the ESD or 623-856-4800 if you already have a trouble ticket number.