JBER: One team, one fight, ready for anything

  • Published
  • By Luke Waack
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson met the milestone of Full Operational Capability, Friday, as mandated by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure law.

FOC means JBER has merged installation management functions and assets to become the sole provider of support, services and a home to more than 40,000 Airmen, Soldiers, family members, retirees and civilians.

The merger has been a long time in the making, according to Air Force Col. Robert D. Evans, JBER and 673d Air Base Wing commander.

"It took literally years of hard work by dedicated leaders - Soldiers, Airmen, civilians - across our joint base team to set this joint base up for success. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to those who have set the conditions for JBER to achieve the intent of the BRAC law," Evans said. "Oct. 1 is a significant day in our joint base history because it's today that the real estate, the real property, the resources formally transfer to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to be executed on behalf of our entire joint community by this joint base organization."

JBER isn't alone; the home of the Arctic Warriors is one of a dozen Department of Defense joint bases, but this base is special, Evans said, because of geographic advantages and key decisions made in the merger process.

"The organization is joint at every level and while there's 12 joint bases in the DoD, the approach that each joint base took was different - and rightfully so - they all had different situations. The approach we took at JBER was one of pure integration at every level," Evans said. "All of our formations are blue-green blended," the commander said, "And I think that will be one of our keys to success and we're enabled by our unique geography here, the fact that our bases are joined, the fact that our missions are so complimentary and interdependent upon one another, has really afforded us the opportunity to take this integrated approach."

The 673d ABW has Air Force and Army troops working together in all of its organizations, Evans said.

"So not only is our command team joint, with an Air Force commander, an Army colonel as our vice wing commander, a command chief master sergeant and also a command sergeant major, but our organizations are joint, so that our logistics readiness squadrons combine elements of Air Force logistics readiness with Army DOL," Evans said, "Our security forces, our fire departments our civil engineers combining Directorate of Public Works with Air Force military engineers - at every level our formations are truly integrated and our approach to providing services in support of Airmen, Soldiers, their families and the missions that they perform is one of true integration."

FOC doesn't mean JBER is finally becoming joint, Evans said, much of the installation was joint already.

"We're already a joint base as evidenced by the close working relationship that exists between our security forces and law enforcement, as evidenced by our joint fire department which came together in 2004 and was recently recognized as the best in the Air Force," Evans said, "As evidenced by our joint venture hospital serving Soldiers, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, Sailors, Marines and family members in a truly joint sense."
Service members and their families share so much, Evans said.

"The fact that we shop together, we live together in our communities - Army families live on the Elmendorf side of JBER, Airmen's families live on Richardson, we shop together at the Joint Military Mall - we're already a joint base," Evans said, "We saw that evidenced by the tremendous response to tragedies this last summer with the crash of Sitka 43 and the loss of Senator (Ted) Stevens and his colleagues. The joint community, the joint base responded superbly in those times of adversity."

As a joint base, already strong units and families will grow stronger, Evans said.

"This union formalizes an already close working relationship the Air Force and Army have shared for years; working closely together under Alaskan Command and Joint Task Force Alaska," Evans said, "At JBER, we will live like we train, in a joint environment, with a common goal; to develop more effective and efficient joint warfighters," Evans said.

"The efficiencies we gain will translate directly into improved combat effectiveness."