Episode 5 - Honoring Service & Strengthening Our Region: A Conversation with Colonel Powers

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Colonel Powers, Commander of the 121st Air Refueling Wing, as we explore leadership, service, and the important connections between military and community.
In this episode, we discuss the role of the Air National Guard in supporting our region, the values that guide leadership in times of challenge, and the importance of honoring those who serve.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Brought Better Together with a new show from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, where we connect with key leaders and explore the policy, partnerships, and opportunities to give in the future of Central Ohio.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Welcome back to Growing Better Together. This podcast is about having a conversation with Central Ohio leaders. The first few episodes were with local government leaders or elected officials, but today's conversation is going to be a little bit different. What's great about Central Ohio is we have so many different assets, but one that's a really big one is our unique defense assets. You know, I've worked at Morpsey for several years, and in that work, I have the opportunity to work with local governments, members of the business community. But whenever I talk to folks, I mention how we do defense work. And it's always, you know, a little bit surprising to people when I uh I mention that work. We will talk about it a little bit more uh later, but we facilitate a group called the Central Ohio Defense Group, which is a coalition of about six different partners working together to elevate our unique defense assets. And through that work, I've really had the privilege of working with the 121st air refueling wing and have gotten to know Colonel Powers, who's the commander at that base. And I uh I welcome Colonel Powers to uh to Growing Better Together. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Absolutely, thank you, Joe.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, really honored. Uh it's been uh it's been fun getting to know you uh over the years. So we'll just start off. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what attracted you to serving in the military.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Sure. So you're you're talking about like going back like like historical. Yeah, yeah. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Let's go back to the 20th century.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Thank you. Thank you very much. So uh I grew up uh exposed to the Ohio, uh the Ohio Air National Guard specifically. Uh I'm a second generation guardsman. Uh my father was a pilot, uh and I just kind of got exposed to that uh early on, knew that I wanted uh to be a pilot. Um the night nice thing about the the National Guard, whether it be the the military at large or the reserve, you know, active duty military or the reserve component, uh they teach skills and trades, and there's college benefits. So, like many, uh leverage the military for college benefits to pay for a degree, uh, but once you're there, you really find that it's the people, uh, and that's why I'm still there. Everybody around, uh everybody around me, all the people that I get to work with every day, uh, both at Rick and Backer and across the Air National Guard. The Ohio National Guard is truly amazing people, uh, absolutely special people to work with. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

So when you were younger, what decided you to go into the the Air National Guard specifically?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah, so again, just kind of that exposure, uh, you know, I had an opportunity on on various guard weekends, and uh just a little bit of background, you know, the Ohio National Guard uh is comprised of the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. I'm in the Air National Guard, it's also a reserve component of the Air Force. But the National Guard is a part-time force predominantly. So most of our people do this. You'll hear sometimes maybe on the commercials the one week in a month, two weeks a year type commitment. And that's really a misnomer in today's day and age with the amount of readiness that we have to maintain. Uh, but that's the basic, the basic requirement that most people uh um uh understand when they when they hear reserve component. But but again, you know, um that early exposure coming out, uh learning about the National Guard, uh, you know, having a father that was involved, just you know, it's hey, that's something I want to do. You know, it's the the ability to serve, the ability to give back to others, to be uh a part of your community uh is very important, a very rewarding part of the job. And then you know the neat thing about the National Guard that a lot of people don't understand is that we are predominantly a community-based force as well. So, you know, in the state of Ohio, there are armories on the Army National Guard side spread all over the state. And there's a number here in Central Ohio. Uh the Air Guard tends to be clustered into larger organizations. There's four major wings in Ohio. Uh again, the 121st Airy Feeling Wing at Rickenbacker is the largest here in Columbus. Uh, but there's also wings in Toledo, Mansfield, and Springfield, and then we have some geographically separated units in the Port Clinton, the uh uh the Zanesville, and the Blue Ash areas. So it's kind of a large footprint, but it's that spread out force. So you see it's all across the state. Uh and as I mentioned, the Army Guard armories, they're not in every county, but they're in quite a few. Right. Uh so really out there, rather than having one large major base, they're just kind of spread across the communities that we live and we serve in. So it's an interesting, unique thing about the National Guard.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Yeah, no, thank you. Uh thank you for sharing that. So a lot of Morpsey staff and a lot of community leaders might know about the 121st air refueling wing at Reckenbacker, but a lot of listeners don't. So what is it, what's and what's the mission?

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

So the 121st air refueling wing is comprised of a a little over 1200. The number varies a little bit. Right now it's about 1,211 uh military and civilian airmen who operate 12 KC-135R stratotankers, and that's the backbone of the United States Air Force's air refueling capability. So our our major purpose uh is to provide that uh air refueling capability, refueling other aircraft in flight and agile combat supports, all those things you need to sustain aircraft, uh to enable people uh and to project power forward. All of that wrapped up in that is the mission of the 121st. And kind of sum it up by our our mission statement is prepare, deter, execute. And really what that means is that we we prepare ready, resilient airmen who are capable of, who stand ready to answer the call at a moment's notice, whether it's providing uh disaster response support to civil authorities in times of domestic emergencies or deterring our potential adversaries that might want to jeopardize our American ideals, uh, or if deterrence fails, on order we will execute our core airy feeling, those agile combat support capabilities to deliver that combat air power anywhere, anytime that our nation needs.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Could you just provide like a maybe a recent example when uh folks at the 121st were called to help with a national or uh global issue?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, I can I can actually talk to both of those, both uh, you know, the uh here at home Ohioans helping Ohioans, Ohioans helping North Carolinians. Um, you know, just going back a few years, uh the the National Guard, both the Air and the Army National Guard in Ohio, and really all of the National Guards across the United States were heavily tasked during the COVID epidemic. Everything from enabling and supporting uh and augmenting hospital staff to uh assisting in jails to uh distributing food through area food banks uh to helping uh um health agencies administer COVID vaccines, you name it, the the National Guard was out across the communities providing support. That's probably the largest mobilization of the National Guard since World War II was COVID response. Shortly after COVID, we we saw Air National Guards, specifically some 121st airy-filling members, uh helping out in the Indian Lake region, Logan County region after the tornadoes. So right there, that's that Ohioans helping Ohioans, kind of one of our bread and butter missions, bread and butter purposes. Uh and then another uh more recent example is uh you know Hurricane Helene came uh up the up the coast uh in in late 2024, fall of 2024, and had particularly devastating flooding in the North Carolina region, especially the mountain areas. Uh and we deployed our fatality search and recovery team to help local authorities in North Carolina conduct search and rescue operations in the immediate aftermath of that that hurricane passing through. Uh and that's a story that I like to highlight that that that team is almost entirely uh drill staff's guardsmen or those part-timers. Uh, and from when you know Ohio got the call from North Carolina that we need help, uh, they were boots on ground supporting North Carolina authorities in less than 30 hours. And so you think about that, you know, that's us calling them at home. Yeah, you know, saying, hey, we need you to come in, get your gear ready, get marshaled, and drive your your vehicle's convoy down to North Carolina to get something operating in just that short amount of time. I mean true, true uh demonstration of the citizen soldier, citizen airman nature of the National Guard.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Yeah, thank you so much for your leadership and service. Uh I know um with the tornadoes last year, a lot of folks in our community were deeply impacted by that. So thank you. Um so you're the commander of the 121st era and wing. What does that entail?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Well, uh, you know, really my job is to is to provide resources, remove obstacles, give people the the time and the space to do great things and then get out of the way. Yeah. You know, it's uh it is it is you know help helping build that common vision, that common purpose for the organization. So when folks say lead, follow, and get out of the way, you wish to find I get out of the way. You can do all of those. No, but it's it's really most importantly is getting resources that our airmen need to do their job. You know, as not unique to the 121st, not unique to even the military, you know, we are in a busy time. Um, you know, uh global uh global trends, global changes are our you know continuing in just general resource-constrained environment that we're in today. Uh you know, we need to find new and innovative ways to do things, uh, and that's been kind of a mantra for a while now, but but to really be creative on how we get after the problem sets and the challenges today. So, really, my role as a leader is to kind of set the conditions to allow the that innovation to incubate and grow uh and and and ensure that our people have everything they need to do the the jobs when they are and they're ready to do their jobs uh when they're called upon. Thank you for that. Uh it doesn't sound like there's a lot of typical days. Is there a lot? As a matter of fact, yeah, there uh there are really no typical days. Every day's a little bit different. Um our wing is a heavily, heavily engaged wing. Um you know, we have we support uh we deploy regularly on uh uh our federal mission overseas. Uh we had a large team uh deploy uh over um the the October to March time frame. It was part of our regular recurring uh deployment cycle for that agile combat support. So think everybody that protects the base, provides communications infrastructure, firefighting, um, logistics support, all of that and more is wrapped up in that agile combat support capability. And so we had a number of people, a large contingent, about 10% of the wing, out for six months. Uh and we really saw them go to different spots around the world. We had teams in the in the Indo-Pacific region, we had teams in the European Command region, we had teams in the Central Command region. Uh so really uh very geographically diverse application of our missions. And then more recently, we deployed our our aviation and maintenance package consisting of the uh the KC-135s themselves and uh air crew and maintainers to the Indo-Pacific region as part of our standard rotational cycle there. And so we really see a lot of deployments, a lot of engagement from the wing in our federal missions. Uh, and then we have our Title 32 organized train and equip missions that we do to build that combat readiness and to prepare people to be ready to go out the door at a moment's notice again for that domestic emergency or domestic response support to uh the our overseas combat missions.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

So the 121st Air Refueling Wing is an asset because of all the services you provide to the state and the country and the world for that matter. Um but also from a jobs perspective, just the the broader defense community in central Ohio, there's 8,000 jobs that impact uh the region. Um that's part of the reason I alluded to earlier, the Central Ohio Defense Group, where we really try to get communities working together to see how we can be an asset to the defense installations here in Central Ohio. Could you elaborate a little bit about the partnership of the Central Ohio Defense Group in your capacity as commander of the 121st Air Rufing Wing, and then maybe talk a little bit about the association of defense communities?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Sure, sure. So the programs you're talking about are kind of under uh some broader umbrellas of the Department of War's Office of Local Defense, Community Cooperation and the Air Force's uh community partnerships uh uh divisions within within the services. Uh and they are really looking for ways that that military organizations can build relationships with with surrounding uh governmental and in some instances non-governmental entities. Uh to really, as you mentioned earlier, you know, we're we're in an environment where we we have to be creative and approach things differently. Uh and maybe there's a way that we can pool our resources, our pool our buying power for lack of a better term. You know, we have very similar issues uh in terms of general training needs. Uh, I think skills training, you know, like like vehicle maintenance or engine maintenance. You know, there's a lot of things that carry over to the civilian world for the military world. Um everybody needs roads repaved. And so there's a number of areas where we can work together to leverage our buying power that when we buy at scale, uh it reduces the unit cost for multiple entities out there. Uh and that's just that's an example of that. Um you know, mentioning just the the broader defense community, we're really grateful to enjoy wonderful support from the central Ohio community specifically. Um, we've had a long-standing relationship with the Columbus Regional Airport Authority and several of the entities around. Uh, and we've been able to help those entities uh get funds through federal programs like the Franklin County Engineers Office recently got uh build grant, and I'm gonna butcher the Alam Creek Drive, the Alum Creek Improvement Corridor, which connects you know Rickenbacker to 270. And that supports literally thousands of military personnel, most of them part-time, that are stationed based at Rickenbacker. Uh and it just there's there's defense value in that. Uh similarly, the Columbus Regional Airport Authority uh recently, about two years ago now, uh was awarded a nearly $9 million grant through the Defense Community Infrastructure Program to rehabilitate uh the inside runway uh at Rickenbacker, which ordinarily would, you know, from an FAA funding standpoint doesn't meet the threshold because of the number of sorties flying from Rickenbacker, but it's truly a very strategic asset for the military and for the 121st. And so for us to be able to work together to get that, to keep that capability uh viable uh for our region is incredibly important.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

It's really helpful for us as well because we facilitated the defense group for I'd say about eight or nine years now. And Steve Tugan chairs that uh that initiative. But when we have our regional policy roundtable, which is local government leaders focusing on public policy issues, we actually just had the meeting today, is we always have a defense update on what's going on uh at the Defense Supply Center of Columbus, what's happening at the 121st Air Refueling Wing, what DCP projects do we need to advocate on. So it's it's really helpful to convene and learn from you, but also we can help report out on what's going on and what are the priorities in the region. So it's a it's just a really, really uh important tool. Speaking of important tools, uh, one thing is there's an intergovernmental support agreement. The acronym is uh an IGSA. Yes. And this is something we've been looking into here in the region as a potential uh tool in regards to reducing costs with the Department of War, uh, but also generating revenue in Central Ohio. Uh, could you tell us a little bit about that tool and how it could benefit the region?

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Sure, sure. So uh from my understanding, my perspective, the the intergovernmental support agreement is essentially a non-traditional contracting mechanism where there's an established relationship between the military entity and this surrounding governmental body. And again, like I was alluding to earlier, where there's those shared those shared uh challenges or goals that we each need to do, whether it be training or procuring a particular thing, or again, that that infrastructure improvement modernization, uh we all have uh similar needs in that way. So if there that intergovernmental intergovernmental support agreement is a mechanism by which the military can leverage essentially the contracting mechanism of that surrounding governmental entity, or um in some instances, even that you know some governmental entities may have their own roads departments or something like that. Is there a way that that that type of service could be provided to the military at a at a more reasonable or or or lower cost than through the traditional uh contracting mechanism? And the idea is that that these build resilience both at in in the military community but also in the surrounding the surrounding community as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Yeah. Well, thank you for for sharing that. What's one thing that's always interesting about talking to folks in the military, whether it's you or other folks in the Central Holly Defense Group, is planners and working at Morpsey and working with the state or federal government, there are so many acronyms. Go to a defense-related meeting. Oh, yes. I I mean I it so much of it goes over my head. Just sidebar here. How long does it take to understand the language of defense?

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Uh well, Joe, you you probably need a couple of years to gain fluency, but it's uh it's a dynamic and ever-evolving language. And uh at some point, you when you realize that there are acronyms within acronyms, uh, you get to that at PhD level.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yeah, yeah. I am I am not at the PhD, I'm like pre-K level when it comes to some of those uh defense acronyms. Um so we talked about the KC-135s, but there's also a unique opportunity for the 121st air refueling wing with the uh KC-46s. Yes. Could you uh elaborate on that opportunity and the impact it would have on the region?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Sure, sure. So the the uh the the Air Force right now is in the uh in the midst or in in uh working towards modernizing, really recapitalizing the KC-135, which is, I mentioned earlier, it is the principal air fueling asset in the United States Air Force. It is the backbone of our air refueling capability, and air refueling really gives the Air Force and the US military writ-large its global uh capability to respond quickly. You can't really do anything without without air refueling. Uh the KC-46 for us uh would bring us to the forefront of the Air Force's air refueling capability. Um it is uh based on the the Boeing 7.6 platform, uh it has uh far more fuel efficiency, uh better communications and connectivity, uh, and has the ability to refuel both uh Navy and Air Force aircraft uh on the same mission, whereas the KC-135 needs to make adjustments on the ground before we do that. So really it would bring the 121st to the forefront of the Air Force's air refueling capability. Thank you. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Uh one thing that I've learned going to the 121st several times is the unique partnerships that state National Guards have with countries overseas. Sure. Could you talk a little bit about that? It's really interesting. It is, it is.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

So you're you're talking about the the National Guard State Partnership Program.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

That came into being uh really after the end of the Cold War, uh early uh early 90s. Um the the US was looking for a way to build partnerships and and and and trust and communication and bonds with with some of the former Eastern European countries. I think it started out in the Baltic States and started expanding out to where it is now. There's um more than 107 partnerships, I think the number is around the world today between the the 54 National Guards, and we think the 50 states, the the territories, and the District of Columbia. Uh so a lot of partnerships around the world. Uh it's it's a very unique program. Uh one trust and cooperation are probably the two biggest outcomes from it. Um, Ohio specifically, we have been partnered with Hungary since 1993 and Serbia since 2006, I believe. Um we're looking to establish a third partnership right now. That's that's that's in the works. Um but it is from the National Guard's perspective, we are doing military to military engagements. Um think interoperability, think about working together to solve problems, to understanding each other's cultures and how to better communicate. Those are all desired uh effects and outcomes of the state partnership program. And it's all in line with the Department of War's objectives and the Department of State's objectives for the region or for that country. Um but from the state partnership program, something that's unique about it is actually afford some opportunities for kind of like a whole of society or whole of community approach to partnerships as well. So, you know, Ohio's partnerships with Hungary and Serbia have led, you know, from the National Guard to the Serbian or the Hungarian military partnership has led and enabled uh partnerships and engagements beyond the military. So we've we've set uh and open doors for um commerce, for education, for health engagements, just kind of a number of different different areas uh where again it's kind of more of a almost that that whole of society where it's growing into.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Yeah, it sounds like it has a really uh lasting impact, and we're happy to have you on uh growing better together when whenever that third country uh is uh engaged. So we always kind of close with a couple traditional uh questions. So in your capacity as commander of the 121st, what's one thing that's really energizing you right now? Yeah and then what keeps you up at night?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah. Um from the energizing perspective, it's it's our people, really, first and foremost. You know, the the challenges I was you know uh alluding to earlier. We are an organization that uh, you know, our our principal purpose is to generate and maintain combat readiness. You know, we're we're doing that in an environment of a high operations tempo just because of everything that the the military is is frequently asked to do. Uh and we're doing it with a predominantly part time force uh in an era where the the you know the in that constrained resource budgeting environment. And so it really requires us. To to take that different approach to thinking and how we're getting after stuff. You know, it's you really can't do more with less. You have to do things differently. And so seeing the some of the greatness coming out of the wing is what really, really uh motivates me and excites me. You know, there's been some things that have had Air Force-wide impact. So the KC-135, venerable, amazing, reliable airplane. Uh, you know, it was it was fielded in in the mid to late 1950s. The youngest one is it was built in 1964. Um and you know, as with every aircraft, occasionally there's going to be some kind of a problem. You're going to have an emergency, you need an emergency procedure to safely recover from that problem. Uh and at the 121st, we saw the development of what's called the KC-135 Quick Reaction Handbook, or basically an in-flight emergency procedures update where we have taken the KC-135 emergency procedures and taken that out of like a PDF, uh, you know, some of its checklist, some of its paragraph, some of its bold, some of it's not, but a really uh basically a human factors nightmare of trying to navigate uh you know emergency procedures to successfully respond to problems and brought it into a modern era uh tool, even like the civilian airlines use. So it's all iPad, or well, it is tablet-based, not necessarily iPad, but tablet-based. Uh, and it's interactive where you know a pilot says, hey, this light's on and it will take them to the checklist. It has everything laid out sequentially. So this really represents the the most significant advance in KC-135 flight manual and emergency procedures since the aircraft was fielded. Really brings the KC-135 into a modern aviation era. Uh and that was the the that idea popped up and really came to fruition through the 121st. That's fantastic. And uh and we've had been helping AMC lead you know uh flight test and lead the implementation of that across the total force. So active duty KC-135s, Air Force Reserve, KC-135s, Air National Guard. We see things like uh augmented reality, virtual reality training in our maintenance and in our uh some of our allied support fields that that really creates um uh optimized and and and similar outcomes with training in a smaller time frame. Um you know it you can you can look at an aircraft motor and do a 3D takeaway of it and find the various parts, and you can go through the pre-flight and maintenance procedures on a much quicker time. Uh and so seeing things like that. And then we're testing um all kinds of new stuff with with partnerships with the Air Force Research Lab and the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson, everything from engine cowlings designed to improve uh fuel efficiency to antenna and wire placement to increase communications capability and also fuel efficiency. So a number of different things. No doubt, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Thank you, uh, thank you for sharing that. Uh so it's 2050. We're we're in the future. Yes. What um where do you see the 121st air refueling weighing in 2050?

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Sure. Well, ideally we see them flying either the KC-46 or or whatever the the next generation air refueling platform is at the Air Force fields beyond the KC-46. Uh we see them, ideally we see the 121st continuing to be uh a key player in um in Ohio and in the nation and in the world that it has been. Uh I ideally we see the wing continue to develop you know some amazing patriots that are ready to serve, that we see the wing continue to develop uh the future enlisted and commissioned commissioned leaders of both the Ohio Air Guard uh and the United States Air Force, and and that we see again the 121st playing that critical role uh in safeguarding liberty and security for Ohio and the United States of America.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

I have one very easy, simple question right after this.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

When was the last time you were in the air? And when's the next time you're gonna be up at the air?

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Well, ironically, I tried to fly on Saturday, uh jet broke as they sometimes they do, so that that didn't quite work out. Uh I'm scheduled to fly tomorrow. Uh wait, today's Tuesday. I'm scheduled to fly Thursday. Nice. So we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

I'm jealous. Um Colonel, thank you so much for your leadership to our country, to our state, and to our region. It's been uh a true pleasure getting to know you uh over the past several years. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Absolutely. Likewise, appreciate the invitation. It's always always great to see you.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Likewise, Colonel.