End of era: Comptrollers complete final travel voucher

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Christina Geller
  • 3rd Comptroller Squadron financial services officer
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Several 3rd Comptroller Squadron Airmen made local history Feb. 26-27 as manual travel processing came to an end across Pacific Air Forces.

Staff Sgt. Chris Larsen, Senior Airmen Josh Mendez, Keenan Watson and Samantha Wood-Clemons, and Airmen 1st Class Casey Brockway and Miguel Santiago computed and processed for payment an Elmendorf record 405 manual travel vouchers during a grueling 25-hour shift. Their efforts resulted in the timely payment of more than $500,000 to Elmendorf members, including many recently deployed Arctic Warriors.

A typical month of manual travel vouchers processed here is approximately 350-375. Comptrollers processed roughly 300 vouchers between Feb. 1 and 26. Furthermore, in the last 24 hours before transitioning this workload to the Air Force Financial Services Center at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., these Airmen completed 25 percent more vouchers in 24 hours than the entire month to date. The increase was primarily due to many Airmen returning from the Cobra Gold exercise and staggered deployment returns associated with the volcanic unrest at Mount Redoubt.

Elmendorf, along with the rest of PACAF, shifted responsibility for processing manual travel vouchers to Ellsworth as the day progressed. It could take a couple of days for processing to return to normal, so Elmendorf airmen wanted to pay every voucher they could before the switch - even the ones that just arrived that afternoon.

"I'm really proud of these airmen. We're optimistic that the transition to the Air Force Financial Services Center will go well, but these professionals ensured that as many vouchers that could be completed here locally were done," Master Sgt. Jermaine Parrish, Elmendorf's financial services NCO in charge. "This will get our folks paid faster and allow a more manageable transition to the new way of processing."

Despite the all-night shift, the Airmen found a creative way to take a brief early morning timeout from voucher processing. Wood-Clemons was originally scheduled for a 7:30 a.m. re-enlistment Feb. 27; however, an impromptu re-enlistment was held just after 1:30 a.m.

"It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. I think both of us realized we'd remember it a lot more if we just went ahead and did it," laughed Lt. Col. Larry Rice, 3rd Comptroller Squadron commander. "She's an outstanding Airman and it definitely was a memorable ceremony for all of us. I was honored to be a part of it."

The last vouchers were audited and paid just after 5 a.m. Once the files were sent to Defense Finance & Accounting Service for payment and all filing actions were complete, the Airmen headed over to the 7 a.m. Operational Readiness Exercise briefing to end their shift.

"It was a long day but I'm glad we did it," said Mendez. "After doing so many vouchers tonight, it's hard to believe we won't be doing any more here forever."