5 things to know about Wright Patt’s new commander

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will have a new commander in June when Col. Thomas P. Sherman replaces Col. Bradley McDonald.

Wright-Patterson is one of the most organizationally complex bases in the country and the state’s largest single-site employer with more than 27,000 civilian employees and military personnel. The base is headquarters for the Air Force Materiel Command, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.

Here’s what we know about the new base commander:

1. Sherman is an Air Force Academy graduate and is now serving as the detachment commander at the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.

2. Sherman said his first goal is "to learn as much as I can and really get an appreciation for the base and the community that supports the base and then from there we start looking at what are the strategic goals that outline that."

3. The new commander is a jump master and senior parachutist and has had held key leadership posts throughout the Air Force. He's also a graduate of the Naval Post Graduate School in California and the National War College in Washington, D.C. The Corona, California native is married to his wife, Laurie.

4. His thoughts on leadership: "I think one of the fundamental components that I believe in is that leadership is service and you are serving the people that you have been entrusted with. So I think there's a great responsibility that comes along with that and I need to respect that responsibility."

5. He has an extensive background in leading security forces and the security of military installations, serving in key positions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. He was also chief of the AFIMSC protective services division in San Antonio, Texas.

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