Challenges change at Tinker, but need for support remains
Two constants have applied to Tinker Air Force Base throughout its history:
The base plays a vital role in helping the U.S. and its allies keep their military planes repaired and flying, and it needs a supply of adequately trained workers to meet its operational needs.
Oklahoma City-area executives belonging to a group that supports the base and its mission were reminded of those this week by the U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center’s top civilian, Kevin D. Stamey.
The center’s executive director told 150 people attending a recent Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Tinker Leadership Community gathering those issues are gaining importance.
The U.S. Air Force and other military branches and the nation’s allies face everincreasing threats even as they continue to deal with ongoing Middle East warfare and terrorist threats across the globe, he said.
To meet those threats, Stamey said the military and Air Force in particular are updating their strategies grow to both their arsenals of personnel, weapons and aircraft and to get leaner, smarter and faster when it comes to supporting them.
That will require support, he said.
Back in the day
When the maintenance depot in Oklahoma City was created in the early 1940s, both the base’s civilian and military leaders asked the state’s men and women to help it keep planes in the air and fighting.
The military estimated in 1941 it would need at least 3,500 workers, prompting then U.S. Rep. Mike Monroney to tell the Oklahoman-Times Washington Bureau he expected the military to bring in a training team to help address an expected shortage of skilled aviation mechanics.
The depot’s demands for skilled labor didn’t end with the war. In 1947, after announcing it would add a third shift at its depot, Tinker leaders announced they would tour the state to recruit skilled workers. The base’s needs have only continued to grow.
Today, Tinker is one of three air logistics complexes making up the Air Force Sustainment Center. The base employs nearly 30,000 military and civilian workers, has an annual payroll of $1.75 billion and supports another 30,000 local jobs, generating an annual economic impact of $4.5 billion.
Oklahoma, of course, has helped by adapting its vocational and technical educational programs to meet the depot’s evolving needs for skilled workers involving aircraft engines, bodies and operational systems, and Stamey acknowledged that support in his address.
He also noted times have changed, though.
“In 1942, when the depot officially became Tinker Air Force Base, the world was a very different place,” he said.
“While air power was the key to victory then as it is today, it involved a very different set of capabilities. We didn’t have weapons systems that relied on a million lines of software code to provide capability. The word cybersecurity didn’t even exist.”
Catching up
As the sustainment center’s executive director, Stamey helps its military commander by providing operational planning and execution of air force supply chain management and depot maintenance missions for a wide range of aircraft, engines, missiles and components.
While he told the group the U.S. is working to tip the scales back in its favor to counter growing threats, he said that will change “the type and amounts of work the center does, the capabilities it supports and skills it needs in its workforce.”
To get there, it will need employees well schooled in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and that’s where Stamey told committee members they could help.
Tinker, he said, continues to rely on surrounding communities, school systems, vocational-technical centers and colleges and universities to help support its current and growing staff of employees. It also relies on incentives state leaders have approved that make it possible for outside companies to relocate to the state to support the base and its mission.
But more — a pipeline of skilled labor, especially people who are STEM oriented — is needed, he said.
“Even our blue-collar workforce is depending more on STEM as we increase the use of robotics and advanced manufacturing techniques like 3-D printing,” he said. “Unfortunately, our pipeline of engineers is woefully insufficient. In particular, Tinker alone could hire every electrical and software engineer produced by Oklahoma.
“For the Air Force to succeed in this new strategic environment, we need three things: We need to find a way to go faster. We need to find ways to reduce our acquisition and sustainment costs. And we need to find ways to innovate our way out of this dilemma ... by finding ways to leverage technologies to require less manpower. That will help us regrow our technological edge.”