Wing commander addresses potential government shutdown and commissary closure

  • Published
  • By Col. Chad Manske
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing commander
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Team Mildenhall, you have probably heard in the news that in the event our federal budget is not signed, a furlough will commence beginning at midnight, April 9. This is essentially a government shutdown.

We have briefed all of our U.S. civilian employees regarding the effects of a furlough. What this essentially means from a work force standpoint is that all military will still come to work, that non-appropriated funds (NAF) civilian employees will still come to work, that Ministry of Defence (MoD) employees will still come to work, that all contractors performing on-going contract work will still execute those contracts, and that in most cases, all local national direct, and indirect, hires will still come to work.

The primary work force affected by the government shutdown who would, in the majority of cases, not come to work, are appropriated fund (APF) employees, and government service (GS) civilian employees. If you happen to be in one of the civilian categories affected by the shutdown that would not come to work, please ensure your supervisor has a good contact phone number for you to call you regarding your status following the government shutdown.

Rest assured, all affected employees in these categories have been briefed on their status. Please read the related article above that posted to the USAF website yesterday discussing military member status in the event of a government shutdown.

One of our affected agencies on base that will close in the event the government shutdown takes place is our commissary.

Although our commissary is not open on the weekend, should the shutdown continue into Monday and successive days it will remain closed. The same is true for the commissary at RAF Lakenheath. The RAF Lakenheath commissary will remain open today and tomorrow, business as usual, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. However, if this effort is not successful, they will be forced to close their doors for business effective this Saturday morning.

Please consider and plan for alternate shopping methods in the event the commissary is forced to close.

Our AAFES Exchanges and Shoppettes, however, will be unaffected by a government shutdown as they operate on self-generating funds.

If you have any questions whatsoever about the potential government shutdown and you are a civilian, please contact my point of contact, Ms Tina Lhamon, at 238-3070.

If you are a military member and you have questions regarding military pay issues, please contact my POC, Master Sgt. James Young, at 238-5529.

Lastly, I know that many of you have questions about base services not addressed in this e-mail and how they would be affected in the event of a long-term government shutdown.

We have addressed many of the questions we have received thus far as a result of town hall meetings and recent presentations resulting from recent potential government shutdowns. You can access this information through our 100th Force Support Squadron website (http://100fss.com/civilian_personnel.html) and view the 'Links' area along the right side of the splash page. Within that splash page is a link(http://100fss.com/docs/town_hallFAQs.pdf) to frequently asked questions with answers that we will continue to update as the questions come to us.

Finally, for more information on the potential impact of the lapse in appropriations on federal employees, visit www.af.mil/2011appropriationsinformation.asp.

I expect to send additional significant information out to you as this situation dictates. Thanks for your patience and for making it to the bottom of this lengthy, but necessary message.