DAEGU AIR BASE, Republic of Korea -- When Senior Airman Halle Kenty-Fleming, a personnel specialist, volunteered to join the newly developed 11th Air Task Force in 2024, she never dreamed it would mean returning home.
Stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Kenty-Fleming is originally from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. She hadn’t seen her family there since she left for basic military training in August 2023.
“In my head, when I volunteered, I was thinking, ‘We’re going to the Pacific, so it’s like home,’” she recalled. “Later on, when they asked me where I was from, I said, ‘Oh, I’m from this tiny island called Saipan. Not a lot of people know about it.’ And that was where we were going! I was so shocked… My first deployment was back home.”
A unique opportunity
Based in Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, the 11 ATF is one of six task forces activated across the Air Force in 2024. Composed of about 350 Airmen from a handful of units, including Holloman AFB, the task force spent the last nine completing training requirements in an expedited Air Force Force Generation cycle, which is built to enable Airmen to train and exercise together before being operationally employed together as part of a team.
This is a change from how the Air Force traditionally has filled deployment billets, when Airmen were pulled from bases across the force and often didn’t meet until they arrived downrange.
The task force made history in July when it began its six-month deployment, the first in the Air Force. The first stop was to support exercise Resolute Force Pacific in Saipan. Kenty-Fleming ended up working only a few minutes from her family’s home and was able to see them every day.
Seeing her family again was especially meaningful because they had tried to come to Kenty-Fleming’s BMT graduation but had been delayed in Japan and couldn’t make it. She remembered her husband calling her the night before to break the bad news.
“They were crying, and I was crying,” she said. “So, this was the first time I’d seen them in two years.”
Becoming a better version of herself
Growing up in Saipan, Kenty-Fleming didn’t leave the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands until her husband’s graduation from BMT. She had been interested in enlisting before that, but her parents had encouraged her to pursue higher education first. Seeing her husband’s graduation refueled her desire to serve her country.
“It made me realize that the world is so big,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is something I feel like I should do.’ I wanted to push myself, see the world and become a better version of myself.”
Kenty-Fleming said she experienced culture shock when she arrived at basic training, and it was still difficult to adjust at her first duty station. However, with the help and support of her leadership, she not only learned her duty responsibilities as a personnelist but has also thrived in her position, earning a senior airman below the zone promotion and Airman of the quarter for the 49th Force Support Squadron.
“I love my job as a personnelist,” she said. “We get to meet and help so many people. Also, we have really good leadership at Holloman. They’ve been really pushing me to get out of my shell, encouraging me to do more. I feel like I have really grown within the Air Force and have made a difference here. Joining the military helped me see there’s so much more that I could do.”
Growing while deployed
Kenty-Fleming has continued pushing herself while deployed. Wanting to become better at public speaking, she began offering in-processing briefs and has briefed more than 300 members since her team left home station. She’s also been able to help outside her own duty title as a mission ready Airman, assisting in the dining facility or in other ways.
“My leadership team within the 11 ATF is very supportive and hands-on,” she said. “I couldn’t speak publicly before this deployment; I would get so nervous, I’d start shaking. For me to be able to that point where I could confidently brief, my leadership would have me practice my brief and then give feedback. Then when it came to the actual briefings, I wasn’t even bothered by all these people looking at me. I already knew what to say. I was prepared.”
Overall, Kenty-Fleming said she’s glad she joined the Air Force and volunteered with the 11 ATF.
“It’s been really great with the ATF,” she said. “I feel like I’m really learning a lot, especially within my job. I’m really glad to have joined the Air Force because it opened up so many opportunities for me.”