The U.S. Army at Camp Humphreys is making life easier for soldiers processing in or out of an assignment at the big helicopter base. Instead of troops having to visit a dozen or more agencies around base, the base brings the agencies to them.

Camp Humphreys has opened what it calls a “one-stop” in- and out-processing center, in a newly renovated one-time barracks, centrally located in the base’s bustling downtown section.

“‘One shot-one kill,’” said Warrant Officer Stacey-Anne Gordon, chief personnel officer with Detachment B, 516th Personnel Services Battalion at Camp Humphreys.

During the one day soldiers spend at the “one stop,” a succession of briefers from a dozen on-base agencies present needed information and walk them through required paperwork.

The next day, they pick up their new field gear “and that’s it,” Gordon said. “They can go to work, go to the field, whatever, versus coming in, in-processing in pieces, and maybe never finish in-processing because they have mission. So they get it done in one swoop.”

The center, which opened Sept. 1, can process up to 35 troops a day and is rigged with computer workstations troops can use. Soon, troops out-processing at the end of a tour also will sail through a streamlined process, Gordon said.

Under the old way, out-processing soldiers had to visit myriad offices and get their paperwork stamped to show they’d stopped in — regardless of whether they’d ever had dealings with those agencies, Gordon said.

“Soldiers won’t have to out-process things that aren’t pertinent to them,” she said of the new system. For instance, if a soldier never used the Morale, Welfare and Recreation office, that soldier wouldn’t have to go to MWR to out-process.

“So it’ll limit the time for out-processing and save a lot of the soldier’s time and energy,” Gordon said.

For in-processing troops, the “one stop” day starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. Representatives on hand include those from the base medical and dental clinics, Army Community Services, education center and the offices of personnel, finance, transportation, driver’s testing and base housing.

The center is on the first floor of Building S-544, a three-story structure that’s been under renovation since March. Workers gave the building a stem-to-stern, $388,000 overhaul, said Wayne Tharrington, chief of construction inspection at the Area III public works department.

They first gutted the structure, then put in new ceilings, floor, walls, windows and doors and upgraded the electrical system, equipping the building for computer use. They also added a big parking lot in the back, Tharrington said.

Base officials want the new building to serve as a central spot not only for processing but for other “quality of life” services troops often need in their first several weeks at a new duty station, said Susan Barkley, public affairs chief for the Area III Support Activity at Camp Humphreys.

“The renovation was designed to incorporate the one-stop concept,” Barkley said. The building also houses commercial phone and Internet services, a re-enlistment office, finance, pass and ID, and other offices, officials said.

“And I believe there are plans in the future to look to relocate even more things that the soldier would need to either know about or be able to touch soon after their arrival in Area III,” Barkley said.

Pvt. Ashley Huiras, doing her one-day in-processing last week, found the new procedure a welcome relief.

“I think it’s excellent,” said Huiras, a truck driver newly assigned to the 46th Transportation Company at Camp Humphreys.

“It’s nice because it saves you time and you can get on to training.” Briefings, she said, “are not super-long so it’s not boring. I think it’s going smoothly.”

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