The 7th Mission Support Squadron's military personnel flight provides personnel services for about 5,100 active-duty members, 7,500 family members and 14,000 retirees.

The flight's primary focus is customer service, and we pride ourselves in providing topnotch service every day. The MPF is the place to go for a host of personnel issues, such as readiness, assignments, promotions, performance reports, classification, retraining and casualty assistance. The customer service element serves as the focal point for all military personnel activities. Here, customers can receive general information and referrals to the appropriate offices, review their active duty records, receive counseling and complete applications for many programs, update Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System entries and obtain identification cards.

The MPF is located at 417 Third St. Customer service hours are Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call 696-2276.

The area defense counsel provides free, confidential legal defense for all military members. The attorney and paralegal are independent from the wing commander and investigators. They do not report to anyone in the local chain of command. The defense attorney is a licensed attorney who is admitted to practice before the Supreme Courts of one or more states. The area defense counsel and the defense paralegal provide zealous representation to clients facing judicial (courts-martial), nonjudicial punishment and administrative matters adversarial to a military member. Call 696-4233.

The base education office, 425 Third St., has a wide variety of services and programs to assist with educational needs. These include general education and vocational counseling as well as counseling on the Community College of the Air Force, college courses and Air Force commissioning programs. Tutoring services for math is available at no cost. A wide variety of testing is available, including CLEP, DANTES and the scholastic aptitude test.

In addition to the following college and university offerings, distance-learning opportunities are available.

A baccalaureate degree in business administration can be completed at Dyess through McMurry University. In addition, on-base courses in general education are held during lunch hours or evenings. A variety of undergraduate programs are also available at the nearby campus.

Abilene Christian University offers an on-base master of organization and human resources development. Both undergraduate and graduate programs are available at the local campus.

On-base courses in law enforcement and fire protection are offered through Cisco Junior College. The Abilene campus offers associate of arts degrees in academic and technical fields.

Texas State Technical College offers technical courses on base as well as vocational educational programs at the Abilene campus.