McChord Civic Leaders visit Kirtland AFB

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Todd Wivell
  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  The purpose of the Air Force Tour Program is to increase opinions and community leaders' awareness and understanding of the Air Force's role in national security. This is done by inviting groups of civic leaders to witness the Air Force mission by visiting Air Force installations.     

From Aug. 12th through 13th, more than 20 civic leaders from the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., area visited Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, as part of the 2015 McChord Field Fly-away Civic Leader tour.

Kirtland AFB is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The base occupies 51,558 acres and employs more than 20,000 people, including nearly 3,250 active duty military and more than 1,000 Guard and Reserve personnel.

The missions of Kirtland AFB fall into four major categories: research, development and testing; readiness and training; munitions maintenance; and support to base operations for more than 100 Associate Units.

The tour started with a brief introduction by Col. Leonard Kosinski, 62nd Airlift Wing commander and Chief Tico Mazid, 62nd AW command chief.

The civic leaders then processed through the McChord Field passenger terminal, had breakfast at the dining facility on McChord and received a mission crew brief from Maj. Rob Moore, 62nd AW senior executive officer and aircraft commander for this trip.

Upon boarding the McChord C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and after getting settled in their seats, the civics watched as the air crew performed a combat off-load, a process in which a pallet is expeditiously exited out of the back of an aircraft.

After an approximate 3-hour flight, the civics arrived to Kirtland AFB ready to see what other Airmen in the Air Force do and how the McChord and Kirtland missions work hand-in-hand.

Col. Lance Kawane, 377th Air Base Wing vice commander and Meredith Mingledorff, 377th ABW public affairs representative greeted the civic leaders and the tour began.

From having lunch with the Kirtland AFB civic leaders to visiting The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History and hearing about the history of nuclear weaponry, the civic leaders were inundated with new information.

The museum is the nation's only congressionally chartered museum in its field and is a place to learn the story of the Atomic Age. Their exhibits span the early research of nuclear development through today's peaceful uses of nuclear technology.

The day ended when the civic leaders from both JBLM and Kirtland met up once again for dinner at a local restaurant and a tram ride up the east side of the Sandia Mountains.

After a short night of sleep, the civic leaders started their second day with more of what Kirtland Airmen do.

The morning started with a tour of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency museum given by Col. Phillip Layman, DTRA deputy director inspection and education department.

The focus of DTRA is to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists and other enemies by locking down, monitoring, and destroying weapons and weapons related materials.

They also assist Combatant Commanders with their plans and responses to WMD events and develop and deliver cutting-edge technologies to assist with all of these endeavors.

From there the civic leaders went to visit the "Trestle," a 12-story tall, built entirely out of wood structure that helped win the Cold War.

The Trestle, inspired by a railroad bridge, is a test stand for the world's largest electromagnetic pulse simulator. It is two football fields long and was built over an enormous, bowl-shaped arroyo, deep inside this high-security military complex.

After learning more about this structure and posing for some photos, the civic leaders were then taken to the 58th Special Operations Wing.

The 58th SOW serves as the premier training site for Air Force special operations and combat search and rescue aircrews. The wing provides undergraduate, graduate and refresher aircrew training for special operations, rescue, missile site support and distinguished visitor airlift helicopter, fixed-wing, and tilt-rotor operations.

The civics were treated to a hands-on experience when they were escorted to see two of the assigned aircraft assigned to the 58th SOW.

To finish up the tour, the civics were taken to the "Monster Garage," a World War II era hangar primarily used by the 58th SOW students on the duties they will perform for the Air Force.

The hangar contains, but is not limited to, a C-130 Hercules, CV-22 Osprey and HH-60 Pave-Hawk airframes for student instruction.

After a tour of the full facility, to include the civics getting the opportunity to fire a mock 50-caliber machine gun, the Kirtland tour came to an end.

The civic leaders headed out to a local park on Kirtland to have their lunch and then where escorted back out to the McChord C-17 for their flight back to the Puget Sound.

"We learned so much more about the Air Force beyond Air Mobility Command," said Carlene Joseph, McChord civic leader. "We appreciated the opportunity we had to meet some of the Airmen at Kirtland.

"The information we received makes us more equipped to be stronger and more knowledgeable advocates for the Air Force in the future.

"We were totally impressed with the dynamics of this trip, and of course, the hospitality and information shared at Kirtland Air Force Base."