OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. -- Teammates,
It’s been 182 days since the March 16th flood devastated 1/3 of Offutt Air Force Base. Since my arrival, I have been continually amazed by the resilience and can-do attitude of the Fightin’ Fifty-Fifth Airmen and our community partners. We lost no personnel and no aircraft, and the atmosphere immediately following this disastrous event showed everyone how well our team can pull together to continue the mission in the face of extreme adversity. In response to the flood, you focused on the goal of stabilizing our many critical operations. In fact, thanks to your perseverance, our runway was re-opened to limited flying operations within 10 days of the flood and more than 50% of the Bennie Davis aircraft maintenance complex was cleaned, sanitized, and back in use by maintainers within 30 days of the flood.
But now I want to update you on our current status. The wing-level Program Management Office has been working with various stakeholders to bring Offutt back to full recovery. They have led the beddown efforts of all displaced personnel by arranging interim work space solutions, renovating facilities (with the help of other partners and stakeholders) to a usable state, and coordinating with base organizations to establish long-term work space solutions. To date, they have been able to accomplish this for around 85% of our 3,200 displaced Team Offutt personnel and are now finalizing efforts for the remaining 15%.
Also, because of the tireless efforts of the Team Offutt leadership teams, our civic leaders, and key mission and community partners, Offutt has secured major funding for FY19 that will enable us to start the design and rebuild of our consolidated campuses, including our operations group campus, while laying the framework for several other military construction projects for our security forces personnel, our logistics facilities, equipment and personnel, and our Base Lake, among others. We also expect design charrettes to begin for each campus starting in early October and will continue through the end of January 2020. These charrettes will provide all stakeholders with the ability to be part of the planning process that will eventually culminate in our new campuses. This process is very important and we have encouraged each applicable unit to send their most knowledgeable members to help plan their future facilities. While the flood losses have been traumatic, we certainly have a unique and tremendous opportunity to rebuild in a manner that will deliver efficiencies and improvements—and this will lead to increased capability in the future.
Here's what you should know: Wing leadership understands this flood has taken a tremendous toll on many of our members, and the work space situation many of you find yourself in is less than ideal. Rest assured, we will continue to exhaustively do all we can to improve our members’ quality of life as we move closer to full post-flood rebuild.
I am not satisfied with the status quo; I’m certain you aren’t either. However, I do ask for your patience. Also, as we continue to forge ahead into the many months and years of rebuilding that are in front of us, remember to continue to take care of each other. If you have questions about our rebuild efforts, please don’t hesitate to ask your unit leadership.
Warhawks lead the fight! World-class is our standard!
VR,
Warhawk 01