By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Col. Greg Otey, commander of Little Rock Air Force Base until the change-of-command ceremony, is headed to the Pentagon as senior Air Force planner to the Air Force chief of staff.
He will help form recommendations to the Air Force Chief of Staff, who will then meet with the other service chiefs and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to work out an overall position, he said.
Otey will work with two other colonels, two civilians and a lieutenant colonel to oversee those recommendations.
“I’m excited for the opportunity,” Otey said Tuesday, “but sad to leave Little Rock Air Force Base, the mission and the people here.”
Otey, who is commander of the base’s 19th Airlift Wing, will formally hand over the guidon and command at 10 a.m. Aug. 2 to Col. Michael Minihan.
Minihan is the vice commander of the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base, California.
According to his Air Force biography, Minihan served as assistant to the commander for the combined efforts of all operations and support activities associated with the worldwide air mobility mission.
The C-5, KC-10, and C-17 assigned aircraft participate in air, land and aerial refueling operations, responding to Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed combat missions and supporting State Department-sponsored humanitarian-relief efforts worldwide.
Otey called the community—which was awarded the Abilene Trophy as the most supportive Air Mobility Command community in the country—“a community like none other.”
Otey was raised in Virginia, but in his 22-year Air Force career, this will be his first posting at the Pentagon.
“I tried to continue and lay the foundation of being a black knight, and we advanced that ball down the field.”
The 19th Airlift Wing is also known as the Black Knights.
Since he took command in January 2009, privatization of base housing finally got going in the right direction with new partners Hunt-Pinnacle.
“They are almost a year ahead of schedule,” Otey said.
The previous privatization effort, American Eagle, was a dismal failure, but Hunt-Pinnacle bought the housing contract.
“The Joint Education Center broke ground,” he said. “That’s huge.”
The new base exchange opened and Congress appropriated the money for a new security building.
“The (C-130) rodeo was a huge success for Team Little Rock and specifically for the 19th Airlift Wing. We consider this the best C-130 base in the world.”
During Otey’s command, the base had eight C-130s flying relief supplies and transporting soldiers to Haiti in the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed or injured an estimated half-million Haitians and left an estimated 1 million homeless.
Between 15 percent and 20 percent of the wing is deployed at all times in Afghanistan or Iraq, Otey said.
The base continued its support of efforts for better school buildings and better education locally.
“That’s something that will continue,” he said, “so that military kids can get the right kind of education.
“My kid’s 15 and he’s never lived in the same place for over two years. We’re looking to make it better for all and at the same time help military kids,” Otey said.
Lisa Otey, the colonel’s wife, attended numerous Pulaski County Special School District meetings, with the intention of helping get better facilities and education for children of the military and also the community.
As for the Abilene Trophy, “I knew how good this community was,” said Otey. “It’s good to see such a deserving community recognized as the best community in the Air Mobility Command.”
He also praised the community, members of the base/community council in particular, with its support of the base’s rodeo team.
“They threw a huge sendoff breakfast,” he said. “They came to see us off and they were on the sidelines cheering.
“When we won, they threw us a celebration party.”
He said the community also has “Airpower Arkansas,” a subset of the community council, which “raises a tremendous amount of money in support of the Air Show.”
And no nod to the community would be complete without citing the people of Jacksonville for taxing themselves to help build the Joint Education Center, which provides college classes for both airmen and local residents.
“We know of no other place in the Air Force that this has been done,” he said.
They taxed themselves and raised $5 million for the $14 million Joint Education Center.
He spoke highly of his counterparts at the base, Col. C.K. Hyde, commander of the 314th Air Education Wing, and Col. James Summers, commander of the National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing.
‘They’ve been outstanding mission partners,” Otey said.
“It’s truly been an honor to be part of the Little Rock Air Force Base community and team. I am a blessed man.”
As for Minihan, his successor, Otey said, “You’re going to like him.”
