Lord praises base's hurricane recovery

Published Dec. 8, 2006
By Susan Griggs
Keesler Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Just over a year has passed since Maj. Gen. William Lord turned over command of the 81st Training Wing for a new position at the Pentagon.

In his first return visit to the base Nov. 30, General Lord praised Keesler for its ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina and underscored the base's value to the Air Force's training mission.

General Lord is now director of information, services and integration in the Secretary of the Air Force's Office of Warfighting Integration and chief information officer at the Pentagon.

He leads a staff of 150 at the Pentagon, 500 at the Air Force Communications Agency at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., and 100 at the Air Force Frequency Management Agency in Alexandria, Va.

He turned over leadership of the base to Brig. Gen. Paul Capasso less than three months after Katrina slammed the base. When he departed, the base was poised to begin a $950 million repair and rebuilding program, the largest military construction effort ever undertaken in such a short time frame.

General Lord was impressed with the major progress at Keesler in the past year.

"Of the 535 repair jobs, more than 300 are done," he observed. "Now you're getting ready for the really big ones -- building the new commissary, base exchange, the library and the multipurpose center to replace the clubs, not to mention more than a thousand new homes.

"There's still a long way to go, but compared to what I've seen in the surrounding communities, Keesler's quicker comeback will allow the base to be a bigger player in south Mississippi's recovery." General Lord's 18 months as Keesler's commander gave him the knowledge that "training is the bedrock of what we do in the Air Force.

"So many of us have been through the training mechanism, but we're not always aware of that piece of the iceberg just below the water line, of what's really involved in training an Airman in any discipline," he explained. "I gained an appreciation of how complex and difficult the training process is, no matter the career field."

His days at Keesler "also reinforced to me that the important work of the Air Force occurs at the wing level. At the Pentagon, you can get used to arguing about manpower and policy and all the other stuff and forget that our job is to support the people in the field with all of our resources and manpower."

To help make that happen, General Lord had everyone in his organization at the Pentagon print and put in their cubicles the question, "What have I done for the field today?"

"Having come from Keesler sensitized me to be focused on providing help to the wings, where the real heavy lifting in the Air Force gets done," he added.

General Lord's experiences in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath gave him many insights to share when he teaches lessons at the Air Force's course for wing commanders.

"I remember going down to the television station with (Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, the wing's public affairs director) and waiting for our opportunity to get our news out to the community when all of our communication channels were down," he recalled. "In a crisis like that, you have to do whatever it takes to get the job done."

Two of General Lord's primary goals when he commanded the 81st TRW were training modernization and infrastructure upgrades. In spite of tighter budgets and personnel cuts, he doesn't see major impacts in the immediate future for Keesler because of what he called "the Katrina effect," the steady flow of recovery resources to the base.

"However, the Air Force is getting much smaller, and the bigger impact will probably come with permanent party manning reductions, both for military and civilian employees," General Lord pointed out.

"I think the bigger impact for Keesler will come through base operating support, not so much in the training area," he continued. "The Air Force is reducing the active-duty force by 40,000 -- if one out of every three people isn't here next summer, which I think is likely to be the case, that may roll over to training as a secondary effect. When you throw in A-76 and other things that are going on, that's where I think Keesler will feel the effect."