Air Force contracting executive to lead new human performance wing

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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Air Force officials announced today that Thomas S. Wells, a member of the federal Senior Executive Service, will lead the new 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. 

Wells comes to the new wing after serving first as deputy director, then director, of contracting at Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command since November 2003. Prior to coming to Wright-Patterson, he served in a variety of leadership positions after joining the civil service in 1981.

"I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to lead what will be a unique, world-class organization," Wells said. "The wing will seek to enhance the human aspects of flight in the 21st Century using the same kind of vigor and vision that the Wright Brothers first applied to the aero-mechanical aspects of flight here in Dayton some 100 years ago." It has not been determined when Wells will report to his new job.

As director of the wing, Wells will oversee a new organization that combines the Air Force's human research and related activities within a single organization. The wing's formation is the result of a 2005 Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure decision that directed realignment of functions from Brooks City-Base, Texas and Mesa Research Site, Arizona to Wright-Patterson. It combines the Air Force Research Laboratory Human Effectiveness Directorate with several units from Brooks' 311th Human Systems Wing, including the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Air Force Institute for Operational Health, and the 311th Performance Enhancement Directorate.

The 711th Wing will report to AFRL Headquarters at Wright-Patterson, but its work will reach beyond the Air Force and beyond the gates of Wright-Patterson. It will complement the Navy Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory--which is relocating to WPAFB from Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.--and surrounding universities and medical institutions. It will function as a joint-service center of excellence for human performance, and will model a university in its approach to education and training, research and development, and clinical evaluation and consultation.

Air Force officials estimate the wing could eventually create an additional 500 military and 350 civil service jobs by 2011, and a like number of contractor jobs at Wright-Patterson and the surrounding area. In addition, the School of Aerospace Medicine will bring more than 5,000 students to the Dayton region annually.

The base will receive $332 million in construction dollars to build facilities that will house the new wing and other units coming to Wright-Patterson as a result of BRAC. Total new construction will amount to one million square feet and represent the largest construction project on the base since World War II.

A formal ceremony to activate the new wing is planned at the base soon, but no date has been set.