FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
By building trust and good relationships with the San Antonio and Texas politicians, Joint Base San Antonio has been able to thrive, support a myriad of mission partners and create more efficient working environments.
As commander of the 502nd Air Base Wing, Brig. Gen. Len Patrick said it's a matter of constant engagement with the four U.S. Congressmen who have JBSA military installations in their areas and the two U.S. senators from Texas.
Each year, Air Force wing commanders are allowed to go to Washington, D.C., to meet their Congressional members and discuss Air Force issues important to Congress and their constituents back home.
"It's an opportunity to talk about current policy and Air Force issues, since our representatives don't always have a chance to get out to the military installations on a routine basis," General Patrick said.
"I've made five visits to Capitol Hill overall, three of them as 502nd ABW commander," the general said. "It's given me a chance to engage with them and tell them what we are working on, since the military is a tremendous part of the areas they represent and the economic impact of JBSA is worth billions of dollars."
As a 2005 Base Realignment and Closure mandate to consolidate installation support functions and nearby installations under one military department to optimize installation management, the joint base concept has found support on Capitol Hill.
"Our political leaders have a very good understanding of JBSA," General Patrick added. "We've worked very hard to articulate that the missions of Fort Sam Houston, Lackland and Randolph Air Force Bases haven't changed and that our 211 mission partners still have their missions to do."
By forming relationships with the MLAs - the military legislative assistants for congressional and senatorial staffs - the general said he has been able to keep elected officials well informed about JBSA successes.
"They are very interested to see how we are doing," General Patrick said. "Are we more efficient? Are we saving money?
"On my last trip May 5, I could show that not only are we saving money and manpower for the services we're providing, but we're also giving time back to our mission partners, so their civilians and military members have more time to do their jobs."
The general said it's been amazing to realize the kind of efficiencies found with joint basing.
"If we find that one installation is able to save time on a process, we can transfer that knowledge to all three parts of JBSA," he said. "For instance, we're taking multiple service contracts that provide the same thing and putting them under one contract.
"We are standardizing procedures on emergency response, installation access, customer comment feedback, occupational health, environmental responses and much more," the general continued. "There is so much value in learning from each other. When we do find an issue at one of the installations, we have the three organizations from our three installations get together to solve it."
With Joint Base San Antonio still in its infancy, the general said it's going to take time to find all the efficiencies possible.
"That is our day-to-day charge: to effectively support our mission partners in the way they enjoyed in the past while we become more efficient," General Patrick stressed. "I feel the transition over to joint basing been successful.
"We've had some rough seas, and there are some things we are learning to ensure we keep the heritage and culture of each of the three bases in Joint Base San Antonio intact, while the organization known as the 502nd Air Base Wing provides the municipal support for those three organizations," General Patrick added.
Even with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Sen. John Cornyn both being Republicans and the four U.S. congressmen split 50-50 Democrat (Rep. Charles Gonzalez and Rep. Henry Cuellar) and Republican (Rep. Lamar Smith and Rep. Francisco Conseco), General Patrick said support remains strong across party lines for San Antonio's military installations.
"We have a mixture of both parties that represent our installations and they treat the military in San Antonio with the highest regard," the general said. "This city goes out of its way to make the military feel welcome."
The general said building trust takes an open line of communication.
"Sometimes their offices call us, and other times we'll go through the City Council or the Chamber of Commerce and let the officials know what we are working on," General Patrick said.
When there are decisions made that may prove unpopular, having that two-way communication helps both sides mediate the results.
"Our elected officials in Washington understand that some decisions are because of directives we've been given, like going to Force Protection Condition Bravo, or changing access to the installations like we had to do after 9/11," the general said. "They know we had a well-thought-out process in making these decisions, rather than operating in a vacuum.
"Our Texas representatives know our missions, they know our leadership by their first names and they participate in our events," General Patrick noted.
"They are very interested in the success of all the missions in San Antonio."