FORT SMITH : Passing of flag marks 2 command changes
Posted on Monday, October 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/239461/
FORT SMITH — Two key military installations in western Arkansas received new commanders Sunday.
In a ceremony at Ebbing Air National Guard base in Fort Smith, 30-year Air National Guard veteran Col. Kevin Wear turned over command of the 188 th Fighter Wing to his vice commander, Col. Thomas Anderson. Anderson will oversee the wing’s continuing conversion to the A-10 Thunderbolt II and their deployment overseas in early 2010.
At nearby Fort Chaffee, Col. Louis Landreth relinquished command of the Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center to Lt. Col. Robert Embrey, who will continue to see the base grow as a training place for soldiers fighting the global war on terror.
As is traditional in such ceremonies, the symbolic change of the command was made physical by Wear and Landreth passing their respective unit flags to their superiors, who then passed the flags to Anderson and Embrey.
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., attended both ceremonies Sunday along with local community and other state military leaders. Third District U. S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., joined Pryor at the 188 th change-of-command ceremony.
Pryor, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said many people in Washington recognize Fort Chaffee for its value as a training base and said he believed the fort would be given more important missions in the future.
During the ceremony at the 188 th base, Anderson praised Wear, who retired Sunday from the National Guard, for his efforts in retaining a flying mission at the 188 th. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission decided in 2005 to strip the 188 th of aircraft and reduce its numbers. With then-188 th commander Col. J. R. Dallas deployed overseas at the time, Anderson said, Wear put his retirement plans aside, took the lead and organized a team of community and local military leaders to fight the commission’s decision.
Through his efforts and that of the team, the commission rescinded its first order and assigned the A-10 s to the 188 th and authorized an increase in its personnel. The 188 th also received $ 17 million to fund the conversion and $ 500, 000 for a new flight-simulator building. Without Wear’s efforts, Anderson said, the unit would not have survived. “He sacrificed so he could lead the unit during the BRAC fight,” Anderson said.
For his effort on the closure fight, Assistant Adjutant General for Air Brig. Gen. Riley Porter awarded Wear the Legion of Merit during Sunday’s ceremony.
Wear said before he retired that he wanted to make the unit more useful to the National Guard Bureau, which would reduce the chances of being affected by future Base Realignment and Closure Commission actions. He also wanted to make the 188 th attractive for such future missions as taking on the Air Force’s new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
“As wing commander, I gave it my very best. I’m in the end zone, and I salute you, 188 th,” he said.
Anderson, a 21-year veteran of the 188 th, said his greatest challenge will be to continue the conversion of the A-10 from the A to the C model, and to prepare for deploying them overseas in late winter or early spring 2010 to fight terrorism.
He said he was grateful for the strong foundation Wear built for the 188 th and vowed to build on it.
During the change-of-command ceremony at Fort Chaffee, Deputy Adjutant General Brig. Gen. William Johnson awarded Landreth the Meritorious Service Medal for his service as commander of the Maneuver Training Center.
Landreth’s major accomplishments were the support given to Arkansas’ 39 th Infantry Combat Team and the Illinois 33 rd Brigade Combat Team as they trained at Fort Chaffee for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan respectively, Johnson said.
He also praised Landreth for leading the training center’s unit in housing 2, 300 New Orleans refugees in August during Hurricane Gustav.
Unlike Wear who retired, Landreth said that he is joining Illinois’ 33 rd and leaving for Afghanistan on Sunday where he will work in Task Force Phoenix, the military’s mission to mentor Afghan military units into an independent fighting force.
Landreth said he enjoyed working with the professionals who kept the fort running and provided good training for soldiers.
“These professionals and great training opportunities is why soldiers continue to come back here” to train, he said.
Embrey, a Fayetteville native who earlier served as deputy chief of staff for engineering with the Arkansas Army National Guard, said his goals were to build on the training center’s ability to improve the readiness of the National Guard troops by improving their proficiency skills and building cohesive teams.
“I consider it a privilege and an honor to carry the torch,” he said.
Embrey said his initial job as he takes command will be developing three new ranges by 2012 and completing the new armory, which will be finished in late January.
The armory will consolidate units in Fort Smith, Charleston, Van Buren and Fort Chaffee, he said.
One of the ranges, he said, will train soldiers to recognize and detect improvised explosive devices and to defeat them.