BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- With the multitude of Air Force bases around the world, many bases would like to say they have the best command post in the Air Force. Here at Barksdale, that is a statement of fact.
While entrusted with providing nuclear command and control for military forces, handling everything from emergency management to mass notifications, Barksdale’s command post has earned numerous awards proving that they stand at the top.
“We’ve had a couple of great years,” said Maj. Mathew R. Chamberlain, 2nd Bomb Wing Command Post chief. “For the past two years, we’ve won Best Command Post in the major command, and this past year we won the 2019 United States Air Force Large Nuclear C2 Operations Center of the year.”
Not only is the command post highly decorated with major unit awards spanning from the Wing Staff Agencies level to the Department of Defense, but command post Airmen have also nabbed numerous individual awards as well.
“As I go through and see all these awards, it’s really a testament to the whole team,” Chamberlain said. “I’m really fortunate to have, up and down the ranks, a team full of winners.”
Although the command post is highly esteemed at this point in time, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
“It was a rough time for the command post when I first took over,” Chamberlain said. “Our relationship with other units wasn’t as good as it is now, operationally we weren’t doing what we needed to be doing and morale was a lot lower. So we absolutely had to make a full 180 swing.”
“There was a vacancy within command post leadership positions,” said Senior Master Sgt. Anthony R. James, 2nd BW CP superintendent. “My position wasn’t here and the chief position kept being shuffled around, so we didn’t have that stability in leadership.”
With the influx of new leaders and the implementation of new practices, the command post was able to fulfill that 180 swing and flourish into their current state of dominance.
“We began to have support like we didn’t have previously,” James said. “The morale changed for the better and we started to be recognized for the things that we do.”
“When I came in I wanted to create an environment where people wanted to be, and feel like their leaders supported them and actually cared about them,” Chamberlain said. “One because it helps build future leaders for the Air Force, and two, if people are happy, they produce better work.”
Although a change in leadership and morale were big contributors to the command posts success, it all stems from the work of the command post Airmen.
“The Airmen are the biggest contributor to that success without a doubt,” Chamberlain said. “As displayed by the list of awards at all levels, as I said before, I’ve been lucky to have a team full of winners.”
The team has even paved the way for a new program, the Global Aircrew Strategic Network Terminal (Global ASNT), which will replace two nuclear command, control and communications systems across the DoD.
The importance of the command post’s responsibility can not be understated. The fact that the unit has been so highly decorated in recent times lends itself to a safer, more lethal nation and it is all made possible by the men and women of the Barksdale command post.