Honorary Commanders deploy from Vance

  • Published
  • By Capt. Tony Wickman
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
Vance Air Force Base, Okla. --  Eight Vance honorary commanders visited the base Tuesday for an insider's look at the 71st Mission Support Group's operations.

Hosted by Col. Jennifer Graham, 71st Mission Support Group commander, the civic leaders were given deployment orders to the fictional country of Tarzanistan and went through the process Vance Airmen do to deploy.

According to Colonel Graham, the decision was made to expose the honorary commanders to the deployment mission because Vance has many Airmen deployed or about to deploy.

"We chose a deployment mission because we have 67 people deploying or have deployed in this calendar year. We wanted to show them what it takes to get all those Airmen trained, equipped and ready to go and accept them back on their redeployment," the colonel said. "This is a huge part of what we do in the support group, and I wanted to expose the honorary commanders to that part of our mission."

The day began with the honorary commanders meeting Colonel Graham and her commanders at the Vance Club and giving them notice of their deployment. They went directly to a deployment line where they were given dog tags, a records review and provided information from the chapel, legal and other base organizations that help deploy Vance Airmen.

Once they had their records in order, they moved in to a briefing room and given a "classified" briefing on their deployment to Tarzanistan. After the briefing, they were taken to Combat Arms Training and Maintenance and given orientation to military weapons and fired them for qualification.

To ensure they were prepared for their fictional deployment, the honorary commanders were given field gear and conducted a mock force-on-force firefight.

Following the deployment, they were redeployed to Vance and went to the club, where the Airman and Family Readiness Center gave their redeployment briefings and re-indoctrinated them.

"I hope they learned something here," Colonel Graham said. "We are proud of our pilot training mission here at Vance, but we shouldn't forget about our mobility mission. I'm glad we were able to expose the honorary commanders to that part of the mission."

For Paul Baker, Emrick's Van & Storage owner and 71st Operations Group honorary commander, it is exciting to be an honorary commander and to be given an inside peek to Vance Air Force Base.

"I was excited and honored to be asked to do it (honorary commander), but I think that it has been better than I anticipated. Like the exercise we did today, I had no idea this went on out here at Vance, this preparing people to go on deployment," Mr. Baker said. "Some of the excitement I get is coming out here and learning more about what Vance does, and I'm thrilled do be doing this."

With regard to deploying to Tarzanistan, Mr. Baker said it brought back memories from when he was an Army officer candidate.

"It brought back some memories, firing those weapons today. It is nice to know how all this fits together," he said.

For Capt. Randy West, Enid Police Department and 71st Security Forces Squadron honorary commander, it was a good time and educational.

"It went pretty good today, but I don't want to go," joked Captain West about going to Tarzanistan.

According to Bob Farrell, 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs chief of community relations, today's program was designed to give the honorary commanders a taste of what Vance does to deploy Airmen to support the warfighters.

"The honorary commanders related that even though they have been in the program for eight months and have had an association with the base, they didn't have a concept of what it took to deploy and what is left behind when they are gone," Mr. Farrell said. "They left with a better sense of what folks have to do as a military member who deploys from Vance.