Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas -- Laughlin’s 47th Force Support Squadron military personnel section has recently updated their Real-time Automated Personnel Identification System, now letting customers schedule appointments online.
The system, known as RAPIDS, is a security system used to verify Department of Defense members and their dependents in order to grant privileges such as access on to installations, their facilities, benefits and more.
Also part of the system is the RAPIDS Appointment Scheduler, an online appointment scheduling application that provides personnel sites with the ability to create and manage appointment blocks for one or more workstations and also allows customers to make appointments online to get a DOD ID card.
This service is accessible to a wide-range of customers to include civilians, retirees, Active Duty, guard members, reservists, contractors, foreigners and more, making this system a valuable resource.
“With the advantage [of the RAPIDS scheduler], we are able to see members that do not live nearby within a time that does not cause any hardship,” said Senior Airman Michael Lindsay, 47th FSS customer service technician. “The RAPIDS Schedules also allows us to publish important information such as documents that we will need in order to serve our customers.”
While the scheduler has provided an advantage to personnel’s customers, computer systems aren’t perfect.
“There are many times when headquarters is performing updates or the system crashes, which does not give members access to receiving Identification Cards that grant them access to our facilities or their benefits,” said Lindsay.
Fortunately, the RAPIDS Scheduler informs members who have to travel notice of our system not currently not available.
“For the members that have learned of our system; it has helped them tremendously,” said Lindsay. “We’re excited to keep providing our members with great customer service.”
The RAPIDS Scheduler is now available for use and can be found at https://rapids-appointments.dmdc.osd.mil/.