Q&A with Gen. Everhart: Fairchild ‘a remarkable asset’
Gen. Carlton Dewey Everhart serves as commander of the U.S. Air Mobility Command. He sat down with Spokesman-Review editor Rob Curley on Monday to talk about the strategic value of Fairchild Air Force Base and its future in the region.
Q: What role does Fairchild play for this country’s national defense, both today and in the future?
A: If you read some of the op-eds that I’ve written about this state and about this particular base being part of our power-projection platform, what this state allows us to do is to continue looking toward the West as far as the Aleutian island chain and to the South China Sea. (It) also allows us to be able to support events that may come over the Arctic and through Canada. That’s just locally in this area.
If you look at our operations and what we are doing against ISIS, if you look at our operations and what we’re doing in Afghanistan, it’s always about getting fuel to the fighters to be able to execute their mission. (This week), I heard Lt. Gen. (Jeffrey) Harrigian state that in the last month, they had about 550 to 600 sorties dropping bombs. The airlift piece of it was 1,800 sorties. The air refueling piece was 1,300 sorties – that enables our joint partners, that enables our sister service to be able to execute the orders of our commander in chief and the orders in support of the defense of our nation.
You’ve got to have fuel for these missions, and it comes right out of this state. We have other states that provide fuel also and do tremendously well, but if you look at this region it’s just a remarkable asset that we have at Fairchild.
Q: Is that because of this base’s particular location?
A: Geography helps, but it is also a matter of circumstances. Where are you looking? Where is the next conflict? So you can be closer geographically to an area and help out more. What is so great about our mobility platforms is that I can maneuver these platforms around the world based off combatant commander needs and based off of our commander in chief’s needs.
Q: Explain the Mobility Guardian Exercise (at Fairchild in late July-early August).
A: It’s an exercise where we are going to execute every single critical mission in my portfolio, whether it’s aeromedical evacuation, whether it’s opening up the airfields through an air-mobility airdrop, demonstrating getting supplies and joint forces from the air to the land, and it’s also going to obviously involve doing a lot of air refueling.
What we’re discovering is we have gotten extremely good over a certain mission set over the last 15 years. We fly out to Europe, Afghanistan and Iraq. We stay, we fly back, we reconstitute and then we do it all again.
In simplistic terms, someone has to set the table, someone has to sustain the table and someone has to clean up after everything is done. That’s what we do with such great pride with our airmen and Air Mobility Command.
Q: Who are the international partners who will be a part of this exercise?
A: We will have mobility airmen working side by side with joint and international partners. More than 25-plus countries will be participating or observing the activities.
(Editor’s note: Air Force officials said the countries participating in the mobility exercise include: Brazil, Colombia, Belgium, Republic of Korea, France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Bangladesh, Nigeria, South Africa, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Kazakhstan and Jamaica. Officials said that potentially a few other countries also may participate.)
Q: All of those nations are coming to Fairchild?
A: Significant portions of it will be here and portions of it will be going on at McChord (Air Force Base near Tacoma). This exercise is going to benefit the full spectrum. We’ve got 25-plus international partners coming along with all our joint services, so we are pretty proud of this. It couldn’t happen at a better time.
If you look at what’s going on in world events, the primary reason we’re doing this is because it sharpens up our skill set, it keeps us ready, it improves our readiness and it does so at a financial cost that is very beneficial to our nation.
If you look at a cost-benefit analysis, our nation wins on this one. We have crews that are prepared across all aspects of what we do. More ready, more ready, more ready. That’s a beautiful thing, and the effect will be achieved via this exercise.
Q: Is this the first time you have visited Fairchild in your current role?
A: I have been to this base several times. I did the change of command as 18th Air Force commander three years ago. This has been the following visit to that. But I think this might be my first visit in this role.
Q: This community always wants to know about the stability of this base. Will Fairchild leave us? Will it go away?
A: I do not see that happening. I can’t speak for the Air Force, but I’m telling you this base is my power-projection platform. Fairchild has to be congratulated on getting 12 more tankers. We will have those in the fourth quarter of 2020. That’s going to bring additional airplanes here plus backup aircraft inventory, which is the inventory that sits on the ramp that also is maintained. That is going to allow us to have a tremendous force projection out of the Northwest corridor.
If you look at our power projection for where we have our forces laid out, there are two essential bases in the Northwest. There is McChord, and there is Fairchild. Airlift and air refueling, that’s our combination. That’s what we do. I believe this base is in very good shape from the standpoint of what it brings to national defense. This role will continue well into the foreseeable future. It is a power-projection platform for America.
Q: The total number of tankers here will be 56?
A: It’s going to be right around 56. As we look at the inventory of our airplanes, we have about 455 tankers. We believe to get the mission sets done, we need 479. I’m not going to retire any aircraft until I get up to that 479. That’s my stated objective. That benefits our nation. That gives us options for our commander in chief.
Q: What is the age of the primary tankers that would be at this base?
A: They’re going to be right around 50 to 60 years old.
Q: Were these aircraft built to last that long?
A: This aircraft was built to specs that (have) allowed it to last that long, but it also relies on great maintainers. Whether the engineers intentionally did that or intentionally overdesigned the airplane, I don’t care because I’m reaping the benefit now. And we are in the process of doing things that are going to allow this airplane to stay in our inventory until it is 100 years old.
Q: Do these tankers have any sort of defense system?
A: They don’t.
Q: Is that something that needs to be worried about?
A: I do worry about it. Our competitors are doing things now that create concerns and drive a need to enhance the survivability of these airplanes.
Can we do things to change what the enemy sees? Can we have aircraft, smaller aircraft, swarming drones or something similar that can make it look like there are a whole bunch of aircraft in a different location so they want to go shoot at those and not at my tankers? I want to fully maximize today’s and future technology to ensure our airmen are in the best position to get the mission accomplished safely and with maximum effect.
Q: When you spoke about our competitors, who are they?
A: China, Russia. I’m talking about our near competitors.
Q: How does someone in your position deal with things like pilot shortages?
A: We’re taking an all-in view on this. It’s not only pilot shortages, it’s not only a fighter shortage, it is about a shortage of pilots across the board. It’s also dealing with our mechanics, the folks who are in cyber and our air traffic controllers. What I tell people oftentimes is that when the economy is good that is a great thing for America. But a strong economy also pulls some of the most highly skilled and highly trained folks that we have in the military into the private sector. We are working to create situations where both the military and civilian sector benefit.
Q: At your level, do you ever worry about national politics?
A: I may be different, but I don’t worry about politics. I have to deal with politics, but I have a mission. I move the mission and that’s where I am very apolitical. I have a commander in chief and I have direction from my commander in chief and I have my secretary of defense and I move out based upon the mission. This is going to sound like “mom and apple pie,” but I try my best on all of my decisions – as we all do – to do what is best for America. I’ve got a mission to do and I’m going to go 110 percent to get that mission accomplished. Period.
Q: It seems a little unusual for a general of your stature to be speaking to the local media. It hasn’t happened much, if at all, in this base’s history. Why did you change that?
A: I agreed with my public affairs director that we’ve got to get our word out. I want to be aggressive in our community’s understanding of the important roles each plays in mission success.
I am so proud of what this base does every single day. Along with our partners in the Spokane community, the leadership at this base are doing the things that allow us to do all that we are doing with these tankers, these air crews, maintenance and this team. It takes the whole broad spectrum of capability and great airmen to be able to get this mission out the door. That support and the ability to be able to brag about them is an honor. It’s all about having a great team.
Q: Fairchild seems renowned for its partnership with the Spokane community. Why do you think that is?
A: Our local communities are our support mechanism. When I take that pulse, they are the life support that we have. They welcome our airmen and they treat our airmen like family. That is how a base like this succeeds. If the airmen are happy, the mission succeeds. If I take care of the airmen and the community takes care of the airmen, the mission succeeds.
Q: Any message you want to leave with, or is there anything else you think we should discuss?
A: The message I want to leave with is thank you – and I truly mean that. When I say “thank you” to these airmen and to this community, I mean that from my heart. That’s the way I was raised. The airmen are the ones who make sure they get our mission out the door. I owe it to these airmen to take care of their families and keep them happy, then – as I said before – if I do that, then I don’t need to worry about the mission. They are Team Fairchild and I am proud of them.
This is a team that gets our mission done every single day to meet our nation’s needs. I cannot thank them enough. I am talking about every member of Team Fairchild from our airmen to our colonels to our general officers. I also am talking about our entire Air Force. They just rock. They are the example that is set for America. I truly believe that. That is why I am so very thankful to them every day.