When Col. David Fazenbaker served as the vice wing commander at Columbus Air Force Base from 2018 to 2021, he worked in many capacities on base, including community outreach and improving interaction between airmen and local residents.
Now, as the commander of the 62nd Airlift Wing at the Lewis-McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington, he hopes to continue that effort by taking Tacomans on a tour of several Air Force facilities in the United States to show them how airmen are made and trained. Part of that tour was Wednesday at CAFB.
“This is the foundation of airpower, especially from a pilot training perspective,” Fazenbaker said during the Base Community Council luncheon on base. “What we’re doing is I am out showing my civic leaders, who provide my airmen the same support that you provide your airmen every single day, how those airmen are made.”
Fazenbaker was one of several speakers Wednesday invited to speak to the BCC who addressed base-community relations and how the base plans to increase the efforts it makes to show Columbus just what airmen do every day.
Colonel and Commander of the 14th Flying Training Wing Justin Grieve told more than 120 attendees the base, in conjunction with the BCC, will now begin holding monthly luncheons open to the public so that airmen and community members alike can learn about one another and regularly engage.
“My goal is to make this a monthly event, eight months out of the 12 months in the year, with breaks strategically for summer and winter to align with kids and school calendars and things like that,” Grieve said. “This is a way for our civic leaders to come to the base and make connections. And really, it’s a way for them to get to know our airmen on a personal level. And that’s the connection that I’m looking for out of our community.”
Grieve said at these new meetings, attendees can tour the base and see everything from how its pilot training program works to the planes that are flown more than 70,000 hours per year.
“What we’re trying to do is create a more focused venue,” he said. “They’re going to meet airmen at the end of it and they’re going to get to see our airplanes. So it just creates a forum to be able to get a guaranteed tour from our finest.”
BCC president Lynn Robinson said he believes the additional tours and meetings on the base will accomplish Grieve’s and the council’s objectives.
“We are going to hear from airmen, which are the ones that are in the trenches doing the work — the lifeblood of the Air Force,” Robinson said. “The community will get to hear from those people firsthand of what they do and make that connection.”
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