Commander addresses community at Open Forum Published Aug. 7, 2009 By Capt. Beverly Mock 43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs, Chief POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Col. James Johnson, 43rd Airlift Wing Commander, held a commander's Open Forum July 29 in the base theater in order to provide a Base Realignment and Closure update to the Pope community and to address their questions and concerns. He started the forum by introducing the subject matter experts who would be assisting him in addressing community concerns. He gave the BRAC update providing an overview of where Pope is today and what the plans are for the future. "The 43rd Airlift Wing is under an aggressive timeline to accomplish the transfer of Pope's real property, inactivate the 43rd Airlift Wing, and activate the 43rd Airlift Group. According to BRAC law this must be accomplished by Sep 2011, but we are focused on achieving this by Sep 2010," said Colonel Johnson. He discussed the wing's mission encompassing the day-to-day operations and outlined the collective vision of where the 43rd will be when it is an Airlift Group and Fort Bragg is providing the Base Operating Support. He stressed that the group will be focused on being the Air Force's premier Airlift Group for enroute operations and total force partnerships. We also have an important partnership with the community, which is evident with the amount of support the Fayetteville and surrounding communities provide every day. "Just today I was at the Fayetteville Cares press conference where our community announced Operation Holiday Cheer...their effort to send 15,000 gift boxes to local military members during the December holiday," said Colonel Johnson. "They don't get anything out of programs like this other than to thank a Soldier or an Airman for their service - show their support. We are fortunate to have such a supportive community." He then addressed concerns regarding key issues ranging from BRAC to housing issues, personnel assignments, and deployments. The forum ended with more questions from the audience, many of which focused on civilian personnel. Colonel Johnson and Regina Joyner, Civilian Personnel Chief, addressed questions about priority placement, internal hires, general questions on the civilian personnel process and the possibility of retention bonuses. Colonel Johnson and Ms. Joyner both agreed there are still many questions to be answered, and the colonel reminded the audience that the key to success with such an aggressive timeline is keeping communication lines open. "We'll continue to be successful as an organization if we keep talking to each other. We take your questions seriously and we will get back to you with answers." "I appreciate your attendance tonight," he said. "I want to thank you for your questions and thank you for your service." Q & A on key issues Q: Are permanent change of station orders frozen? A: Assignments are being managed to ensure Pope's important missions continue. That means that some military assignments will continue until the reserves or the Army or a contract solution is in place. And, inbound assignments are being curtailed where it makes sense and where we know that certain positions will not require an Active Duty Air Force backfill. Q: When will the reduction to deployments occur? A: There is no set timeline but we have to make sure people have enough time after they return from a deployment to PCS. Q: Reveille plays at 6:30 a.m. each morning; can we turn it off in housing? A: Yes, we can and we will. Q: Will security forces continue to patrol base housing post BRAC? A: The military police will provide the future presence to patrol housing. Q: Will the Information Tickets and Travel facility close on Pope? A: Fort Bragg will be responsible for Base Operating Support and services. The Army is bringing in a team of experts to look at all services facilities to determine what facilities to keep open, what services and facilities to integrate, and what to close. Q: Will civilians get priority placement for Fort Bragg positions? A: Pope leadership requested that Fort Bragg consider Pope civilian applicants as internal hires, and the Garrison leadership agreed. Q: When can civilians register for priority placement? A: The Installation commander can open registration for Priority Placement Program within a year of a RIF and information will be released when decisions have been made on the exact timeline. The inter-service support agreements will determine this timeline. Much work on these draft ISSAs should be completed in September and October 2009 and then we will have a better idea if September 2010 is an accurate date for the completion of much of the property and service transfers as well as the inactivation of the wing and the activation of the airlift group.