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Commander impressed with talented Airmen in Iraq

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jeff Walston
  • 506th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
KIRKUK REGIONAL AIR BASE, Iraq --  Col. Richard Scobee, a traditional Air Force reservist from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., ended his sixth deployment and relinquished command of the 506th Air Expeditionary Group here Oct. 30.
Shortly after passing the unit flag to Col. John F. Costa Jr., Colonel Scobee began his journey back to Luke AFB to resume command of Air Force Reserve Command's 944th Fighter Wing.

As with most Airmen on deployment, there are certain things missed when arriving and leaving a base. It was no different for Colonel Scobee.

"Luke is home for me, so I miss being home," he said. "The wing there is very supportive. I also miss the flying. Being an F-16 pilot - six months without flying - is tough duty."

But being away from home didn't stop him from being near the "944th family."

"I have my explosive ordnance disposal people, security forces and civil engineers here," he said. "We all deployed together, which is great."

No matter where the deployment, the circumstance or hardship, memories are always taken home.

"Of all the deployments I've been on, this has been the one that I most significantly noticed how talented our Airmen are," the colonel said. "I've seen them step up to the plate and accomplished more than I would have ever imagined while maintaining a good attitude. It's just phenomenal."

When he learned he was going to Kirkuk, Colonel Scobee set goals for himself as well as the Airmen who would be under his charge.

"I have exceeded the goals that I'd set for myself here. No. 1 being security of the base," he said. "We have been extremely successful in robusting our ability to monitor what goes on around the base and what we've done with the infrastructure of the gates and perimeter as well."

His second goal was flight safety.

"We have nearly tripled the aircraft movements on base since I've been here and still continued to have safe flying operations," he said. "We have also re-surfaced one of our runways, so we have two structurally sound runways instead of just one.

"The third (goal) is supporting our on-base agencies. The testaments from the Army and our three-letter agencies have been absolute in that we've been successful in that mission as well. I'm very happy," said the colonel.

Colonel Scobee said he was also proud of other major accomplishments by the Airmen on his watch at Kirkuk.

"We are now using technology as our first line of defense to keep terrorists out, instead of putting Airmen in harm's way continuously," he said.

"Another would be, the term we use, 'shrink and share.' Where we shrink our footprints on this base and we start to give back some of the old Iraqi air force infrastructure to the new Iraqi air force," he said.

As commander of a combined services base, Colonel Scobee had the opportunity to work with many different organizations in order to accomplish his mission.

"I want everybody to feel like they are a part of what this base does," said Colonel Scobee. "If I'm putting it here for the Air Force, I want it here for our Soldiers and our civilians. Just doing that has set us up for success in so many different things. All the things that we enable other people to do has been the key to getting along with all those people and the success here."

Colonel Scobee said success for the services and agencies on Kirkuk Regional Air Base translates into successes for the Iraqi people as well.

"Interaction with the Iraqis has been great," he said. "I am very impressed with their desire to take over the infrastructure and run their own militaries.

"Iraqis don't want to be dependent upon us for security," he said. "They want to be able to take that on for themselves." (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)