Straight Talk: Gate manning

  • Published
  • By Col. Roman L. Hund
  • 66th Air Base Group Commander
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – This week’s Straight Talk answers a question about staffing at the installation’s gates during the morning commute.

If you have a question and are not sure where to find the answer, I encourage you to contact the Straight Talk line at 781-225-1380 or by email at Hanscom.straightalk@us.af.mil.

Q Is there any way to have a second entry controller at the Hartwell Gate starting at 5:45 a.m.? Many employees start work at 6 a.m. and with only one officer there until 6 a.m., the traffic on Hartwell Avenue sometimes gets quite long.

A Thank you for your input to Straight Talk. We often receive inputs and questions about how to reduce the wait times at the gates. There are always more than one entry controllers on an open gate. Other entry controllers are there to provide overwatch, but also checks IDs when necessary to alleviate congestion. We schedule for surges in traffic from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. Scheduling additional personnel at the gates is not feasible before 6:30 a.m. We will remind our hard-working defenders to keep an eye on traffic, but I would suggest you plan to arrive earlier if the backups are impacting your ability to arrive to work on time.