HomeNewsArticle Display

People-focused commander retires

  • Published
  • By Howdy Stout
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  "The Air Force has afforded me the opportunity to meet people," explains Col. Jim Eilers, commander of the 72nd Mission Support Group. "It's amazing the people you meet along the way and the relationships you build."

Col. Eilers' career spanned the globe and after 33 years, many of the people met along the way are here today to bid him a happy retirement. Colonel Eilers, along with his wife Carla, will travel the world before settling down to civilian life in St. Louis.

"I imagine we'll have to settle down eventually. But first, we are going to fly around the world using military air on a space available basis. We're going to see where they are flying that day and catch a ride," he said. The plan is to travel for close to eight weeks. "Europe or the Pacific ... we don't care. "

Deciding how to settle down might be tough. Aside from a career in logistics and aircraft maintenance, Colonel Eilers is also a qualified multi-engine commercial pilot, flight instructor and a PADI master diver.

A native of Bradford, Penn., Colonel Eilers knew his future was limited unless he left home and got an education.

He chose the Air Force and the newly-enlisted Airman soon found himself on his way to Torrejon, Spain. Becoming friendly with a local family, he spent weekends learning Spanish around the family's dinner table. "33 years later, Bernardo is still one of my best friends," he said.

Nearing the end of his tour, though, the squadron's career officer asked the young Airman whether he intended to stay in the Air Force and, if so, what he would like to be.

"I didn't have a clue," Colonel Eilers said. "I'm gazing out the window looking for an answer to his question and I saw a jet fly by and I said, 'I want to fly one of those.'"

Knowing he would need an education and a commission to fly, Colonel Eilers decided to stay in the Air Force. While assigned to Loring Air Force Base in Maine as a materiel clerk, he took on a full academic load of classes in addition to learning to fly.

Working all day, he attended night classes, finishing each homework assignment immediately after the class. His days ended near midnight.

"I finished a four-year degree in two years," he said. "And that's how I got my education."

He also earned his private pilot's certificate with the help of a $1,800 loan from the local credit union and a motherly banker who feared he might squander the money on fun rather than flying.

"This lady was motherly to me," he said. "She said, 'I'll approve the loan if you leave it in your account and only take it out to pay for flying.' We shook hands on the deal. Two months later I went back and showed her my private pilot's license."

Accepted to Officer Training School, Colonel Eilers was told his eyes weren't good enough for Air Force flight training. When he was commissioned, he pinned on the "butter bars" of a second lieutenant and began working as a supply officer in 1984.

Although he wasn't an Air Force pilot, Colonel Eilers put his license to good use when MAC contracted him to ferry aircraft parts and maintenance teams to outlying U.S. airbases in Spain. During a new assignment at Scott AFB, Ill., was told to pack his bags for "temporary duty" in Bogota, Colombia. Temporary turned into 333 days, where Colonel Eilers was the sole logistics officer supporting U.S. efforts to help the Colombian government carry out the war on drugs. The language skills Colonel Eilers picked up in Spain were put to good use.

"The reason they picked me was they were looking for an unmarried logistics captain who could speak Spanish," he said. "That was me."

Colonel Eilers supplied "everything from combat boots to C-130 aircraft" to the Colombian government.

Returning to the U.S., Colonel Eilers cross-trained into aircraft maintenance before being assigned as a maintenance officer to the 375th Maintenance Squadron at Scott AFB, Ill.

Colonel Eilers met his wife Carla while stationed at Scott. She has remained very supportive of him throughout his career and volunteered as an active member of the base community wherever they were stationed, he said.

Colonel Eilers was assigned to AFMC HQ before moving to the Pentagon as chief of the supply transformation team. However, he wasn't in the building on 9/11. He was on vacation in Canada.

"When I returned days later, seeing the damage up close and in person was more horrific than you could imagine in shots seen in television and the smell from the smoldering debris and ashes lingered for weeks," he said. "The mood in the building was changed forever."

The next year it was off to Misawa, Japan, to stand up the Logistics Readiness Squadron as the Air Force reorganized its structure. Within six months and more than a year ahead of schedule, the unit was up and running and earned an "outstanding" rating for its Operational Readiness Inspection.

"Outstanding is like winning the Super Bowl," he said. "You can go your whole Air Force career without ever earning one."

Colonel Eilers soon found himself head of a 32-member Air Force team running a U.S. Army camp on a Kuwaiti naval base.

Selected as the first Air Force commander of an Army camp, Colonel Eilers ran Camp Patriot, Kuwait. His team brought in many of the Army, Navy and Marines and all of the equipment and ammo needed to carry out the Iraq war.

"It was busy and we didn't get much sleep but it was very rewarding. We provided all the support they needed," Colonel Eilers said.

His close working relationship with the Kuwaitis also opened the base's facilities - swimming pools and bowling alleys - to the Americans. Now a colonel, he returned for a brief tour at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, as chief of the supply operations division before becoming 72nd MSG commander here in 2007.

Friends and colleagues are here today to celebrate the closing of his career.

Becoming an Air Force colonel wasn't ever his goal, doing a good job and providing great customer service was, he said.

"Always leave a place better than it was when you arrived and take care of the people. And then the rest will take care of itself," Colonel Eilers said.

Caring for his colleagues, friends and fellow Airmen has always been a priority, he says, because you never know the effect you might have on others.

"And every person I've met, from airman to general," he said, "has had a lasting, positive effect on me. It made me a better person and a better leader. The Air Force has been very exciting and very rewarding. Although I'm looking forward to the change, I'm sure there will be times when I will miss the Air Force. But, I know one thing for sure, I will miss the people everyday."