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By Howard Altman / Tampa Bay Times / June 23, 2016
PHOTO: Air Force Reserve Col. April Vogel will take over as base commander at MacDill Air Force Base on July 8. Vogel is currently vice commander of the 175th Wing of the Maryland Air National Guard. (Courtesy of the Defense Department)
In the military, one constant is change.
And on July 8, change will come to MacDill Air Force Base as Col. Daniel Tulley, the current base commander, is replaced by Air National Guard Col. April Vogel.
For Vogel, the move represents a change in mission and structure.
She is currently vice commander of the 175th Wing of the Maryland Air National Guard. The 175th, with 1,400 airmen, has an Intelligence Squadron, a Cyber Operations Group and flies A-10 Thunderbolt II jets, known affectionately as the Warthog.
At MacDill, she will be in charge of a wing that gases up jets such as the Warthog.
She will also be in charge of a vastly larger operation. And, as the commander of the 6th Air Mobility Wing, which is the base host unit, she will essentially become the mayor of a small city. It’s home to U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, the 927th Air Refueling Wing, the Joint Communications Support Element and dozens of other mission partners.
With more than 42,000 people on base, including 15,000 military personnel, 3,000 civilians and 23,000 military dependents, MacDill would be the state’s 59th largest city, and has more people than Fort Pierce, Panama City, Dunedin or Plant City, according to the U.S. Census.
Vogel is a senior pilot with 1,338 hours of flying time, including 312 in combat. She has flown C-130s Hercules and C-27J Spartan propeller-driven transports and the C-38 Courier transport jet.
She graduated from the University of Colorado in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in history.
Tulley came to MacDill in August 2014 and has been lauded for educational and transportation initiatives and community outreach efforts.
A command pilot with more than 3,800 hours, he has flown a wide variety of planes, including the KC-135 Stratotanker, MacDill’s signature aircraft. There are 16 of the aerial refueling jets at MacDill, with another eight expected in the coming years.
He graduated in 1992 from Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
Tulley is headed to a job in the Pentagon, according to Capt. Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the 6th Air Mobility Wing.
For Army Staff Sgt. Mark Shrewsbury, who works in the public affairs office with U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, a year makes a big difference.
Last year at this time, Shrewsbury, 39, was capturing images of the annual Warrior Games. Held at West Point in New York, the games are a Paralympic-type event showcasing the resilient spirit of the nation’s wounded, ill, and injured service members and veterans from all branches of the military.
Athletes representing teams from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy/Coast Guard, Air Force, Special Operations Command and the United Kingdom Armed Forces competed for gold, silver and bronze medals in archery, cycling, field, shooting, swimming, sitting volleyball, track and wheelchair basketball.
This year, Shrewsbury, who is battling cancer and knee problems, was a participant, one of about 250 athletes taking part in the event which ran from June 15 to June 21.
“It has been a really fun experience,” Shrewsbury said. “For me, and from what I heard from most of my teammates, it is humbling to see what each other can do with our limitations, whether from illness, combat injury or any other chains of events that lead us to be in the situations where we can compete in these games.”
For Shrewsbury, who trained his video camera on last year’s games, taking part was like reconnecting with old friends.
One of about 30 members of Team SOCOM, Shrewsbury competed in archery, cycling, swimming and seated volleyball.
“Swimming? Not so great,” he said when asked how he did. “I was one place away from a medal in cycling and archery I was about average.”
On Tuesday, Team SOCOM, which played for the gold medal in sitting volleyball, came in second, earning a silver medal after losing to Team Air Force.
“My takeaway is that I have a lot of work to do if I want to do better next year,” said Shrewsbury. “Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I recommend it to anyone who is injured in deployment or ill in the service. I have never felt more welcome in the military than at these games, especially with Team SOCOM.”
The Pentagon announced no new deaths last week in its ongoing overseas operations.
There have been 2,347 U.S. troop deaths in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, 21 U.S. troop deaths and one civilian Department of Defense employee death in support of the follow-up, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan, and 16 troop deaths and one civilian death in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
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