Return of final plane reunites all elements at Fairchild Air Force Base

By JAMES EIK

Staff Reporter

Finishing a month ahead of schedule, and in time for the holidays, Fairchild's nearly 14,000-foot runway is completed.

Tuesday, Nov. 22 ended the yearlong construction effort to bring the base a runway for 21st century missions. Although original plans called for the final plane to fly in during the event and taxi in front of the hangar, extreme winds and inclimate weather forced an early landing.

Members of the 141st Air Refueling Wing and the 92nd Air Refueling Wing along with visitors from the local and state level were in attendance for the ceremony marking the runway's completion.

Runway work at the base has also taken place in 1956, 1983 and 2001.

Col. Paul Guemmer, Commander of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing, said the entire construction process worked smoothly. It ultimately worked well enough to bring the base's planes and soldiers back in time for Thanksgiving.

What problems sprung up in the $43 million project were quickly solved, Guemmer said. The new runway is 50 feet narrower, to save on maintenance costs in the future.

After months of planning, the project first became real once Guemmer and Col. Richard Kelly, commander of the 141st Air Refueling Wing, saw trucks hauling large chunks of the runway's concrete off of the base.

“It was at that point that Col. Kelly and I knew that there was absolutely no turning back on this project,” Guemmer said.

Maj. Gen. Timothy Lowenberg, the Adjutant General for Washington state, was on hand for the event, and emphasized the importance of the base's finished runway.

“The runway completion is part of a critical investment of infrastructure here that we think anchors the future of Washington in global aviation services for the rest of the century,” he said.

Olympia was impressed with the number of jobs created by the work.

“It assures that the economic engine for Eastern Washington, as represented by Fairchild, is going to be vibrant for decades to come,” he said.

While the construction took place, Fairchild operated out of three locations: the base itself, Moses Lake and Spokane International Airport.

At any time, 150 to 200 airmen were in Moses Lake, where the base's heavy maintenance operations were performed. The 141st Air Refueling Wing completed their maintenance at Spokane International Airport.

Around 35 percent of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing were deployed to operations, with eight to 10 percent of the force located in Moses Lake.

While there, he said the wing developed ties it hopes to keep in the future.

“We want to build those community ties and look forward to keeping up with those relations,” Guemmer said.

In all, the base saw 1,500 deployments to Moses Lake while the runway was under construction.

Despite the base spread across the state, 2011 proved to be a busy year. Guemmer said that Fairchild flew 44 percent more than it did a year before. At the end of fiscal year 2011, each plane had logged nearly 1,040 hours of flight time.

The runway was completed Nov. 2, and saw the return of Fairchild's first two planes, piloted by Guemmer and Kelly. Guemmer said it was an “amazing sight” to see the completed runway, without any tire marks.

“I might be responsible for a few of those marks on the runway,” Kelly said of his landing.

While the base prepares for a major inspection next June, Guemmer said many of the personnel in his wing are new.

“We probably have about a third of the airmen who have never operated out of Fairchild,” he said. “So we'll be getting them comfortable with Fairchild operations before we go into a pretty big, pretty aggressive training schedule.”

Kelly said the runway's completion smooths out some difficulties in the months ahead, bringing his wing's personnel back to the base.

“I've got people back just in time so that in a month from now, I can start sending large deployments to Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region, as well as in the Pacific theater of operations,” he said.

The runway is just one project to be crossed off Fairchild's construction list. The base is in the running to receive a new headquarters building and fitness center in the near future.

James Eik can be reached at [email protected].