Wright-Patt welcomes new commander
Col. Patrick Miller assumes hold of the 88th Air Base Wing.
One of the nation’s most important Air Force bases and Ohio’s largest single-site employer has a new installation commander.
Col. Patrick Miller assumed command of the 88th Air Base Wing on Friday, succeeding Col. Thomas Sherman, who is headed to the Pentagon for a new job as principal military assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.
Lt. Gen. Robert McMurry, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, presided over the ceremony.
In a ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, McMurry reviewed Miller’s career and assured Wright-Patterson Air Force Base employees: “You are in good hands.”
“Pat’s got some fantastic experience ... he is well decorated and well experienced,” said McMurry, a three-star general.
Sherman told t he museum audience that supporting a base of this size “takes heart and soul.”
“This has truly been an amazing journey,” Sherman said.
Sherman’s command was memorable for the base’s response to the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes, an active-shooter investigation in 2018 and the base’s support of the Dayton community after the Oregon District shootings last August.
“You’ve had an awesome ride; we truly appreciate your services to the base,” Miller told Sherman.
The change-of-command event was closed to the media, but a feed of the event was live-streamed on
the base’s Facebook page. For a brief portion of the event, the feed offered no audio.
Miller hails from the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas where he served as vice commander.
He was responsible there for providing installation and mission support to 77 Air Force installations, nine major commands and two direct reporting units with an annual budget of about $10 billion.
“Team, I am humbled to be standing before you today as the commander of the mighty 88th,” said Miller, a former instructor and course director of the Civil Engineer and Services School at Wright-Patterson.
As commander of the 88th Air Base Wing, Miller will oversee one of the largest air base wings in the Air Force with more than 5,000 Air Force military, civilian and contractor employees directly employed by the wing.
The sprawling base itself is home to 30,000 total military and civilian employees.
The wing provides supports one of the largest and most complex bases in the
Air Force, an installation that is home to a major acquisition center, research and development laboratories, a major command headquarters, an airlift wing, and the world’s largest military air museum.
“One way or another, you better buckle up,” McMurry said. “It’s going to be a ride.”