Partnership initiative offers win-win potential Published Feb. 14, 2014 By Col. Cassie Barlow 88 Air Base Wing commander WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is fortunate to have great partnerships with our neighbors across the Miami Valley. We have worked together with community partners for many years on fire and emergency services, medical training, and educational outreach programs. We're going to use these great relationships as an example, when we kick it up a notch and explore new partnerships! It's no surprise that national defense spending is on a downward slope. As budgets shrink, we've made extraordinary efforts to cut cost and be more efficient. But the reality is that it's becoming increasingly difficult to perform our mission and take care of our Airmen with current funding. We have to get creative. With that in mind, I want to share with the work force that Wright-Patterson AFB is starting a new initiative that brings together the Air Force and our neighboring communities to help us come up with ideas that leverage our resources, cut costs and find shared value. We're kicking things off with the Wright-Patterson Community Partnership Day on Feb. 20 at the Holiday Inn located in Fairborn, Ohio. During this event, an Enhanced Use Lease briefing will explain the Enhanced Use Lease process and identify candidate parcels of land on Wright-Patterson AFB being offered for potential development. Additionally, an overview briefing will explain the service's partnering objectives and process. After the overview, facilitated breakout sessions will focus Air Force and community participants on collaboratively generating partnership ideas. Our commitment is to find a way to say 'yes' to great opportunities and I believe this initiative is a win-win situation for all Wright-Patterson AFB mission partners.