Colonel Rett Benedict presents a Certificate of Appreciation to guest speaker Chief Master Sergeant Thomas J. Brandhuber.
Colonel Rett Benedict (U.S.A.F. Retired)
The speaker for the March 18 meeting of the Catalina Mountain Satellite of MOAA was Chief Master Sergeant Thomas J. Brandhuber, Command Chief Master Sergeant for the Tenth Air Force, Naval Air Station, Ft. Worth Texas where he is the sole enlisted advisor to the Commander for the over 12,300 enlisted personnel stationed at 30 operating locations within the Tenth Air Force. More locally, he is currently the Assistant Fire Chief for the Golder Ranch Fire District.
The Chief presented an overview of the Tenth Air Force missions and responsibilities as one of four Air Force Reserve numbered Air Forces. It is the only Air Force reserve NAF with units that address all Air Force missions – fighters, bombers, search and rescue, space, special operations, intelligence/reconnaissance and surveillance and cyber warfare operations; a staggering breadth of capabilities and responsibilities. The Tenth NAF has 10 Wings in nine states plus multiple fighter and independent groups in other locations. He briefly described the missions for each of the major Wings and Groups and showed the specific deployments of each of the units to active duty since September 9/11. Many went multiple times for six or so months each time and some that were deployed intermittently deployed over several years. One statistic stood out. In 1991, the Air Force had 98 flying squadrons. Today they have 56, with far more world-wide operations to accomplish.
As one example, the Tenth Air Force has space operations units at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado and Vandenburg Air Force Base, California where they operate satellites, perform space control missions and support launch operations. This same breadth of responsibility ripples across all their other missions. They even have a unit at Davis Monthan in Tucson.
Chief Brandhuber described several of the challenges facing today’s military, especially for the Reservists. Multiple deployments are a big one. Reservists’ civilian jobs are generally protected by law to be available when the person returns from deployment, but the frequent deployments are often hard for the employers to work with, especially for small businesses. Other challenges are the more casual individual appearances in the civilian community versus the military. Both sides are working to adapt. His talk provided excellent insight into military life and missions today and how different they were from that known by many of the SaddleBrookers’ generation(s).
Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, April 15, 2017, in the East Room, MountainView Country Club, 38759 S. MountainView Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85739; phone: 818-1000. The speaker will be D. A. “Bo” Nanna, President, SaddleBrooke Troop Support (STS) talking about what his organization does for the military and how STS and MOAA might work together. Spouses are welcome and invited.
For additional information contact Colonel Rett Benedict, President, 825-7424, [email protected] or Colonel Tom Owens, MOAA Tucson President, 760-3476, [email protected]. Check website: www.tucsonmoaa.com for information.
The Catalina Mountains satellite is part of the Tucson Chapter and encompasses northwest Tucson to include Catalina, Oracle, parts of Oro Valley and Marana, SaddleBrooke and Sun City.
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a nonprofit veterans’ service association dedicated to maintaining a strong national defense and to preserve the earned entitlements of members of the uniformed services and their families and survivors.