Chandler getting a feel for his PACAF command while touring bases

Gen. Carrol "Howie" Chandler, U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander.


Chandler getting a feel for his PACAF command while touring bases
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, January 27, 2008

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — Arriving shortly before a blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow Thursday, Gen. Carrol “Howie” Chandler marked his first visit to wintry Misawa as U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander.

A veteran T-38, F-15 and F-16 fighter pilot and former Pentagon staffer, Chandler toured facilities and met airmen and military leaders as he set out less than two months into his new job getting to know his beat.

On Friday, after wrapping up a visit earlier in the week to Yokota Air Base and before heading to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Chandler sat down to his first interview as PACAF commander with Stars and Stripes, touching on a range of issues, from budgets to the future of the F-15 fighter jet.

~snip~

Q: Does the F-15 face an early retirement?

That’s a possibility … that’s why we’re going to take our time because this is going to be an important decision for our Air Force. We have nine aircraft that have failed some of the structural tests that are in fact grounded. We haven’t determined what we’re going to do with those. Two of those aircraft are at Kadena. When we look at the remainder A through D fleet … it’s going to take a fair amount of study … to see if it’s going to be worth the effort to go back and try to retrofit airplanes to make them flyable. That’s why it’s important at this point to keep the F-22 line open. To have a fifth-generation fighter line open at this point, quite honestly, is a great thing.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51942