Command Post

Every year about 1,200 to 1,500 service members from MacDill Air Force Base leave the service. But only 40 percent stay in Tampa, says Scott DeThomas, who wants to change that ratio. One of the last things DeThomas did before turning over the MacDill Air Force Base key ring to the new base commander was…

If it weren’t for Air Force Tech. Sgt. Lewis Collins, Walter Padron might not have been able to go on a family cruise to the Caribbean for his granddaughter’s 15th birthday. Around 4 p.m. July 10, Collins, the working-dog kennel master with the 6th Security Forces Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base, was returning from…

St. Petersburg-based lawyer Matt Weidner devotes a good deal of time helping veterans navigate the legal system. He says his motivation is simple. “I feel guilty about not being a veteran,” Weidner says. “I was not man enough to serve, and so while I have regrets, I realize I have other skills. I just started…

As always when something emanates out of the nation’s capital relating to defense or intelligence, I parse it for the effect on Tampa. With two military commands headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base that oversee operations in one of the world’s most dangerous regions and one that sets the tone for commando activities worldwide, that’s…

In January 2012, I profiled the 48th Civil Support Team, a 22-member unit of the Florida National Guard that waits in their hangar at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport for disasters human-made and natural. The unit had been on the budget chopping block, but their funding was restored in the FY 2014 defense spending bill…