Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. -- Marines have always been known for looking after each other.
Even after leaving active-duty, the workers of the Defense Travel System Office, who are all former Marines, still take pride in taking care of other Marines who are still wearing the uniform.
The DTS office, located in Bldg. 10, next to the Finance Office, does a lot more than ensure Marines fill out a travel vouchers before going on temporary additional duty.
Its' workers ensure that everyone in the Depot, the Eastern Recruiting Region and different training units in the eastern part of the United States, gets the monetary entitlements they deserve for working away from his or her duty station.
Since its establishment in May 2006, the DTS office has been responsible for providing support to approximately 4,000 Marines, sailors and civilian Marines.
According to Keith Bass, the assistant chief of staff, comptroller, and the creator of the DTS program, the DTS workers go far beyond conventional limits to ensure their job is done.
"I'm proud of the work they do," Bass said, who retired from the Marines as a lieutenant colonel in 2004. "They're focused on helping the unit defense travel administrators and the individuals using DTS."
According to Peter A. Torinese, the lead defense travel administrator at the DTS office, and a former administration Marine Corps officer, he understands that most Marines don't know anything about filling out paper work.
"I feel comfortable that we have the ability to support the Marines when we do our job," Torinese added. Torinese retired from the Marine Corps in June 2006 as a chief warrant officer 4.
Before retiring, he served as the director for the Depot Consolidated Administrative Center, which is now known as the Installation Personnel Administrative Center, and continues to support Marines by ensuring everyone has their TAD forms ready.
According to Bass, the DTS office processes approximately 800 sets of travel authorizations and settlement vouchers for the Depot alone each month.
However, if the travel authorizations and settlement vouchers from the training detachments in the ERR are included in the count, the number exceeds ten thousand per month.
"We usually go through an average of thirty vouchers per day," Torinese said. "It's a continuous thing, because people are always going on TAD."
"It usually takes us about five minutes to revise a voucher," said Nathan Halstead, the Alternative Intermediate Agency Program coordinator. "But it ends up being 20 minutes, because our phone keeps ringing.
According to Tara M. Wainscott, the financial defense travel administrator, she understands that Marines have enough work going on, and they don't have the time to do their own travel claims.
She reminds herself every time she does her job and it motivates her to do her job right. In addition to managing the DTS program, the DTS workers also oversee the government travel charge card program for the Depot.
This program is used by people who travel often and saves them from having to do a travel claim every time they go on a trip.
"We don't want people to be scared of using the charge card," Halstead said. "It's really designed to help you out, because it's faster than filling out a travel claim."
Halstead stressed that he doesn't want Marines to be scared of going to the DTS office when they need help with their charge card or travel claims. Instead, he wants Marines to be comfortable with going there to ask for help when they need it.
Although the DTS and charge card programs are separate programs, the workers at the DTS office manage both to ensure that commands at the Depot and in the eastern United States benefit from them.
"They do an outstanding job of managing the travel process," Bass said. "They routinely go above and beyond the call of duty to help others."