Telephone operators to move to Lackland Published July 23, 2009 By Airman 1st Class Candy Miller 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Sheppard will not have telephone operators on base beginning in September; the function will be moved to the Kelly Field Annex at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for all 13 Air Education and Training Command installations. The operators consolidated at Lackland will use telephone consoles connected to the telephone switch at Sheppard through the internet to control calls to and from Sheppard. Stephen Siegfried, 82nd Communications Squadron, said the biggest benefit will be the money AETC saves. He said customers should not be affected or notice a difference. Sheppard's current telephone operators will not move to Lackland, Mr. Siegfried said, because the move will happen as their contract comes to an end. Mr. Siegfried said the telephone operators are an important role for anyone trying to get in contact base personnel. "Finding phone numbers and transferring calls is not all they do. There are certain functions the operator can do that other personnel cannot do on other phones," he said. Some key functions are morale calls for deployed personnel and "trunk-to-trunk" calls to connect a commercial line to a defense switched network, or vice versa. Telephone services will be provided 24/7, 365 days a year, based on a common level of service for the entire command. Some base operators have already migrated to Kelly Field Annex including Altus AFB, Okla., Laughlin AFB, Texas, Keesler AFB, Miss., and Vance AFB, Okla. Sheppard and Luke AFB, Ariz., are scheduled to be the last bases to terminate the operator function on base. The base operator phone number will remain 676-0000.