MEO merges with EEO Published Feb. 12, 2008 By Airman 1st Class Elliott Sprehe 27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- The Military Equal Opportunity and Equal Employment Opportunity offices have merged as of Jan. 1, and are now known as simply Equal Opportunity. The Air Force is the first branch of the military to implement the new merger and pending the results, may be put into place in other military branches, said Staff Sgt. Melissa Hookfin, 27th Special Operations Wing EO. One of the biggest differences that have taken place is when they were separate offices, MEO, whose employees were military, assisted active duty Air Force, their dependants, and retirees, while EEO, whose employees were civilians, assisted federal employees, applicants for employment, or former employees, said Tech. Sgt. Dawn Hendricks, 27 SOW EO. Since the merger to a central office, located on the second floor of Bldg. 300, servicemembers may now find themselves discussing issues with civilians and vice versa. Some of those issues include five protected categories for military: race, color, religion, national origin, and sex, said Staff Sgt. Tanya Wyatt, 27 SOW EO. For civilians, they have the same five protected categories and three additional categories; age, physical/mental handicapping disabilities, and retaliation. "If I see a civilian as a military person, I would handle their complaint according to what the civilian AFI says," said Sergeant Hendricks. "If a servicemember came in and Ms. Thompson, our EO director, had to see them she would handle their complaint according to what the AFI says for the military process." One reason of the restructuring of the formerly separate offices was due to Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century. According to a Letter to Airmen from the Secretary of the Air Force, the Honorable Michael W. Wynne, AFSO 21 is a dedicated effort to maximize value and minimize waste by doing such things as merging offices, looking at ways to save money and more. "Also, with all the deployments, we still have our civilian counterpart here to deal with military complaints," said Sergeant Hendricks. The EO office is open Monday 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.