'Jointness' celebrated at AFRC facility ground breaking

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Katherine Roling & 1st Lt. Agneta Murnan
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Under the afternoon sun at a temperature of 99 F, distinguished visitors helped break ground June 24 at Vance AFB's southern entrance for one of Oklahoma's seven planned Armed Forces Reserve Centers. 

The AFRC will provide a training location for Army Reserve and Oklahoma Army National Guard personnel. 

Gathered at the future site of a 60,000 square foot training building and 9,000 square foot vehicle maintenance building were Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry; Mayor John Criner of Enid, Okla.; Maj. Gen. Myles Deering, Adjutant General of Oklahoma, who commands the Oklahoma Army and Air National Guard; Maj. Gen. Bruce Casella, commanding general of the 63rd Regional Readiness Command visiting from Los Alamitos, Calif.; Col. Chris Nowland, 71st Flying Training Wing commander; as well as members of the base and Enid community. 

The ground breaking ceremony followed a ribbon cutting ceremony for the $3 million Wheat Capital Road Project that now connects the southern part of the base to Highway 81 to support the Army's 150 wheeled vehicles, 80 trailers, construction and government traffic. 

The road was funded by the State of Oklahoma and City of Enid following 2005 Base Realignment and Closure notifications which designated Vance Air Force Base as the new home of one Army Reserve unit, Detachment 1 from the 401st Engineer Company, and two Army National Guard units, Company B from the 1/179th Infantry and Detachment 1 from the 1345th Transportation Company. 

While the construction is scheduled to be complete in December 2010, the whole process, including design, will have taken approximately five years. The base's 71st Logistics Readiness Squadron, responsible for civil engineering functions here, took inputs from various contractors on base beginning in the summer of 2005 to begin the AFRC site selection and to analyze all of the associated projects that needed planning.

The improvements to Wheat Capital Road include:
· A new access for the large equipment, a guard shack and fencing
· A new road from the AFRC north to the rest of the base
· A new road from the AFRC south to Wheat Capital Road
· New utility connections 

In September 2006, the first face-to-face pre-construction meeting between the Air Force and Army took place at Vance. Between the agencies involved -- the Wing's higher headquarters, Air Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Texas; the Army Reserves; Army National Guard; the Army Corps of Engineers district offices in Tulsa, Okla. and Louisville, Ky.; the Enid City Engineering Office and the various private engineering and construction firms -- tens of thousands of hours have already been invested in the project, according to Maj. Dan Maloy, the 71st Flying Training Wing's chief of BRAC. 

After construction is complete, "There will be a little more 'hooah' around base, and we'll be seeing more (Army Combat Uniforms) as well," said Col. Chris Nowland, 71st FTW commander, as he pointed out the Army personnel in the crowd. 

Capt. Danny Jennejohn, commander of the Army Reserve's 401st Engineer Company, represented Detachment 1, which will be stationed here at Vance. 

Col. Lawrence Fleischman, commander of the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, represented its subordinate unit, Company B of the 1/179th Infantry Battalion, to be stationed at Vance. 

Lt. Col. John Zenker, commander of the aviation elements within the Oklahoma National Guard's 90th Troop Command, represented Detachment 1 of Company A, 777th Aviation Support Battalion to be stationed here as well. 

Air Force Reservists, Marines and Navy personnel have been a part of the 71st FTW for over a decade, but when the Army Reserves and the Oklahoma Army National Guard share the base grounds, each branch of military service will be represented at Vance. 

"Joint is the way to go," said Colonel Nowland. "The new building will have the same architectural designs to match the current buildings on base. It will reflect the reality of joint warfighting -- accomplishing our operations together as a team. You won't be able to tell which is an Air Force or Army building, the facilities will all look the same."
More than the personnel and mission composition at Vance will change with the addition of the AFRC. 

"Our weekends will change," Colonel Nowland said. "Weekdays, our aircraft depart the runway every couple of minutes. Anyone who has spent a week at Vance knows that once local flying operations end each Friday, the base gets quiet. We look forward to the activity on the weekends! 

"Today, Vance celebrates one of the major milestones in becoming the color purple - that's another way of saying joint. We continuously celebrate one of Vance's greatest treasures -- the partnerships we have with our surrounding communities and the state of Oklahoma," he said. 

"Wheat Capitol Road is very symbolic of that connection between the base and the surrounding community. Now, we also celebrate the Team that Vance will soon become, and the new connections we'll soon have," Colonel Nowland said.