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StumbleuponNew base commander takes over at Wright-Patterson
> Photos from the ceremony
Monday, July 14, 2008
Lt. Gen. John Hudson, Col. Bradley Spacy and Col. Colleen Ryan (left to right) sing the Air Force fight song during a change-of-command ceremony held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Monday July 14. Col. Spacy succeeds Col Ryan who led for the past two years.WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The base's close relationship with regional and community leaders is an asset for the installation's commander, the outgoing commander told her successor.
Col. Bradley D. Spacy, who succeeded Col. Colleen M. Ryan on Monday, July 14, as commander of the 88th Air Base Wing that operates Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, said Ryan left him with an encouraging assessment.
"She told me, 'You're going to be amazed. It's the best community relationship in the Air Force,'" Spacy told reporters after he was formally installed as the new commander.
Lt. Gen. Jack Hudson, to whom the base commander reports, praised Ryan on Monday for having strengthened Wright-Patterson's relationships with community leaders.
Hudson, commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson, presided over the 45-minute change of command ceremony inside a World War II hangar. A blue sky, and a large American flag suspended from the top of an open hangar doorway, served as a backdrop for the stage on which the ceremony took place.
Spacy, whose career has included planning a combat operation against insurgents attacking a U.S. base in Iraq, promised the crowd that he will work hard in his new job as the head of what he describes as a family.
"We will work together. We will fight together. And sometimes, we will mourn together," Spacy told the military and civilian spectators. "But we will do it as a family.
"While I'm your commander, you will get everything I've got — everything," he said.
Before he spoke, Ryan praised the performance of the 88th Air Base Wing she has led since June 2006.
"I was put in charge of a wing that pretty much runs itself," Ryan said. "This team makes it look easy and, truth be told, they didn't need me."
"It's been a fantastic ride, and you truly are the best wing in the United States Air Force," she said.
As the wing's commander, Spacy is responsible for operating Wright-Patterson, deploying airmen in support of the global war on terror, and defending the base and its people.
He most recently served as commander of the 375th Mission Support Group at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., where he oversaw the base police and fire departments, security personnel, civil engineers, transportation and logistics, gymnasiums and other facilities.
Spacy, 45, is a career security forces officer with experience in air base defense, antiterrorism operations and force protection. He served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and was later assigned as director of force protection for U.S. Central Command, Air Forces Forward. In that role, he planned and participated in the combat operation against insurgents attacking Balad Air Base, Iraq.
He is married and has two children. He entered the Air Force in 1987 as a graduate of the ROTC program at Fresno State University in California.
Spacy's career has also included service at bases across the United States and leading the Air Force Honor Guard in ceremonies for the president and senior military officials. He has held security and force protection positions at Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon and was director of force protection at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
The ceremony Monday effectively marked the end of active Air Force duty for Ryan, who was the first female commander of the 88th Air Base Wing. Ryan, 47, has bought a house in Dayton and plans to retire on Oct. 1 from the Air Force, which she joined in 1982.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
