General Carlson meets with wing, discusses challenges first hand

  • Published
  • By Derek Kaufman
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  As the senior officer working and residing here, Gen. Bruce Carlson doesn't get to interact directly with the women and men of the 88th Air Base Wing as often as he'd like. But the commander of Air Force Materiel spent all day May 8 meeting the people who operate and maintain the Air Force's most organizationally diverse installation.

"Wright-Patterson is an incredibly busy place and there are a lot of people who come to visit us," General Carlson said. "I also know the fact that this base has infrastructure more than 60 years old brings its own unique set of challenges."

Wright-Patterson is one of 10 bases General Carlson oversees.

Accompanying General Carlson were AFMC's command chief, Chief Master Sgt. William Gurney, and AFMC's director of Installations and Mission Support, Timothy Bridges. They joined an entourage that included Aeronautical Systems Center commander, Lt. Gen. Jack Hudson, and 88th ABW commander, Col. Colleen Ryan, to see how wing Airmen, civilians and contractors are taking care of the installation, supporting the wing's many customers and deployment taskings around the globe.

While the senior leaders were briefed on missions, spouses of the principals, including Vicki Carlson, Tracie Gurney, Cynthia Bridges and Marsha Hudson, participated in a parallel tour of facilities ranging from Arnold House, to the Honor Guard hangar, to the base's state-of-the-art fire station.

At building 22 in Area C, acting base civil engineer Dave Perkins provided General Carlson with comprehensive reviews of base facilities and infrastructure and long-term plans for fixes and improvements, budget permitting. While the base has received more than $200 million in fiscal 2008 for military construction projects in support of BRAC-related initiatives, budget constraints have forced base engineers to postpone and reprioritize improvements on roads, bridges, roofs, airfield pavements, electrical distribution, water and storm sewer piping.

General Carlson also toured the newly renovated Emergency Operations Center where emergency management chief Dave Frank briefed him on Air Force plans to securely share real-time video and data among base leaders, first responders and local emergency management agencies.

Speaking with 88th Security Forces Squadron commander, Lt. Col Mike Reiner, General Carlson reviewed plans for a consolidated security forces operations facility, proposed to be built near the current Combat Arms Training and Maintenance Center.

Senior leaders and their spouses joined Colonel Reiner and others at the Expeditionary Combat Skills Training area on base. There they learned first-hand from recently deployed Wright-Patt Airmen about how the military is taking the fight straight to the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan and how the wing's Expeditionary Combat Skills Training helped prepare them for the challenges they faced while deployed.

"Our 88th Security Forces Squadron defenders are world famous because of our extremely high ops tempo and wartime support," Colonel Reiner said.

General Carlson was treated to a number of live demonstrations during his tour. These included patient decontamination by the 88th Medical Group Airmen at Wright-Patterson Medical Center, a "narcotics find" by military working dog Nisan and handler, Staff Sgt. Tim Tefft, and a $200,000 explosive ordnance robot operated by Staff Sgt. Gabriel Barnes.

Medical center deputy commander Col. Mark White briefed on a funded project to increase the emergency room from nine to 15 treatment stations and improved patient privacy.

While touring the hospital, General Carlson enjoyed a surprise visit by "VPP Man and Safety Boy." The superheroes skit, which also featured the villain "Miss Hap," is part of the 88th Medical Group's educational outreach effort to highlight the Voluntary Protection Program. Staff Sgts. Steven Yoder and Bryan Beisner, along with Susan Guina, played the costumed characters.

Colonel Ryan said the goal in hosting the AFMC commander was for the men and women of the wing to demonstrate some of the amazing things they're doing with limited resources.

"We also wanted to demonstrate how we're taking care of our people by investing in quality of life projects like the Airmen Activity Center to be established in building 1222 near the Kittyhawk dorms," Colonel Ryan said.

General Carlson remarked that he was "extremely impressed by the professionalism and ingenuity I saw today." He added that while the operations tempo is not likely to let up this summer, or any time soon, he appreciates the hard work and sacrifice base people are making for AFMC and the Air Force.

"I want to say thank you for all you do all of the time," he said.