LITTLE ROCK — In the past 18 months, Col. Greg Otey navigated Little Rock Air Force Base through a Herculean growth spurt, past a housing crisis and laid the foundation for its newest unit.
And now, like all commanders of the world’s largest C-130 base, he’s moving on. Typically, command lasts from 18 to 24 months. This time, the Pentagon called Otey to his next job at the very beginning of that window.
On Aug. 2, Otey will hand the reins of the Jacksonville base to Col. Michael A. Minihan. Otey will become a lead Air Force planner, overseeing reports for the Air Force Chief of Staff on how the Air Force can best work with other branches on combined issues.
Minihan is coming from Travis Air Force Base, Ca-lif., where for the past year he been the vice commander of the 60th Air Mobility Wing. The 60th flies C-5 and C-17 cargo planes and KC-10 air refueling tankers.
Minihan is a command pilot with more than 3,300 flying hours in the E and H models of the C-130 Hercules. He was commissioned in 1989 after graduating Auburn University in Alabama with a bachelor of science degree in economics.
His first assignment after pilot training was with Little Rock Air Force Base’s 61st Airlift Squadron, where he served as a command pilot from May 1991 to September 1994. He has served as an instructor pilot, an evaluator pilot and operations officer at various C-130 squadrons.
Minihan graduated from the Army War College in 2007 and was assigned for the next two years to Yongsan Army Garrison, Korea, where he worked as a liaison for the U.S. Transportation Command and then as executive officer.
Otey led Little Rock Air Force Base during a historic period that continues with Minihan. The growth and change that occurred during the last two years under Otey is just the beginning.
Minihan will oversee the growth of security forces and help guide the base’s transition out of C-130E models and into the C-130J as well as an upgrade of the C-130H. More people will flow into the base over the next two years and the base housing project is continuing ahead of schedule.
The growth doesn’t involve the major transformation Otey saw, but the ripples that result.
As with Otey, who oversaw the end of projects began by his predecessors, much of Otey’s work will be seen to fruition by Minihan as he begins projects of his own.
“I did get to cut a ribbon on the Joint Education Center. I got to cut the ribbon on base housing. I did cut the ribbon on a new base exchange,” Otey said.
But, he added that much of the growth and events that happened in his tenure are because of work done by his predecessor, Brig. Gen. Wayne Schatz.
“We’ve grown and that’s a tribute to Brig. Gen. Schatz and the foundation he laid,” Otey said. “And I hope the folks who follow on see some things that will come to fruition in the future.”
One of Otey’s legacies will be the heritage of the 19th Airlift Wing.
Little Rock Air Force Base began its growth spurt in the last months of Schatz’s command, when the 19th first arrived at the base. At the same time, the base shifted from oversight by the Air Education and Training Command to Air Mobility Command, and more than doubled the number of deployable planes and personnel.
Otey took command of the base and the 19th, three months after the transition and began building on the already long heritage of the wing, known as the “Black Knights,” with a history stretching back to World War II.
“Black Knights is who we are and that understanding,that legacy is what makes a team,” he said. “We’ve laid a good foundation, I hope, that can be built on in the future.”
One year ago, when the 19th was just 9 months old, it was named “Best C-130 Wing in the World” at Air Mobility Command’s airlift competition, that included wings from across the Air Force and foreign allied nations.
And right now, 40 percent of the C-130s in Iraq and Afghanistan are from Little Rock Air Force Base - more than from any other single base.
“These are not things Greg Otey did,” he said. “These are things we all did here as Little Rock Air Force Base.”
Otey and his wife Lisa have fought for better schools, just as those commanders who came before.
“I hope we’ve fanned the flames for better schools, not just for the base, but for all,” he said.
Otey said it’s the people at Little Rock Air Force Base and the surrounding community that he will miss most.
“It’s truly been an honor,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate and bless to have the opportunity to serve as commander here.”
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 07/22/2010