Aviation Nation

Nellis Air Force Base is on a Jordan-like hot streak. Using December 2003 as a starting point: Predator spy crew helps soldiers nab Saddam Hussein; the same month, the 757th Air Maintenance Squadron—servicing the unmanned Predator spy/attack plane and the HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopter—is named the top aircraft maintenance unit in air command. March: new combat center opens, testing technology that slices the 23 minutes it took to attack the building where Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hid. August: new "mayor" comes.

More recently: $100 million headed Nellis' way for new facilities and planes; a new maintenance facility is coming; plans call for a weapons school for the F/A-22 Raptor and $70 million to support the annual Red Flag air-combat training exercise.

Future: Congress approves a controversial military realignment that has bases scrambling to justify their existence; Nellis could get 1,412 new military and civilian employees.

Not bad for a base—that some people don't know exists—in a city that seems the antithesis of the military ethos of honor and structure.

But Nellis is more than the sum of its military parts. Its mayor says the base embodies Las Vegas' va-va-voom energy. Says its role on the front lines of the battle against terrorism is as important as its role in supporting the families and friends left behind, is as important to making Las Vegas a better place to live, is as important as making Nellis feel less like a base and more like a home.

Nellis Air Force Base looks like a small liberal arts college—studious-looking buildings, pedestrians (albeit wearing fatigues) and all the necessary collegiate accoutrements, a dining hall, gym, church, Burger King. I'm following 1st Lt. Daniel Dubois, my on-base sponsor—visitor procedures have tightened since the 9/11 attacks. A flack for the Air Warfare Center, one of the base's five units, he's tall, dark and handsome. His gait, like his speech, is economical.

As we wend our way to the office of Col. Walter Givhan, commander of the 99th Air Command, the so-called mayor of Nellis, I take further inventory—everyone's driving the speed limit; a family heads into Burger King for lunch; two airmen chitchat near the movie theater. After two years of hearing how 9/11 has changed the military landscape and how nothing short of an Extreme Makeover-type revamp of our armed forces will keep America safe from terrorists, jihadists and nuclear-arsenal-seeking despots, I half-expected to see war games, the entire base turned into a faux-battleground. It wasn't.

What I do see is relatively staid, nothing that would underscore the fact that Nellis is one of the most important military facilities in the world; that this base, huddled into one of the most boring parts of one of the most exciting cities in the world, is a vital cog in the U.S. defense machinery, that beneath the Mayberry-like facade, the future of air warfare is taking shape here. The only overt signs of the seriousness of this base's mission are taped to the doors of various buildings: white, 8 12-by-11-inch sheets with the words, "Force Protection Alpha," which, in military circles, refers to an unknown, unpredictable threat activity against personnel and/or installations."

In other words, the soldiers are on guard, even if I don't notice.

In mid-May, word came from on high (Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office) that the Pentagon wanted to close 33 major military installations and drastically reduce operations at 29 other facilities. The moves would eliminate nearly 11,000 military and 18,000 civilian positions and, according to Capitol Hill officialdom, transform an outmoded, Cold War-era military structure into a sleeker force better equipped to handle the challenges of modern-day militarism.

In the Pavlovian way they typically react to such encroachment, lawmakers whose home states were on the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's hit list denounced the recommendations and began strategizing (read: trying to save face) on how to spare bases and depots back home. Facing extinction in Nevada are the 326-employee munitions depot in Hawthorne, 300 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and the Reno-Tahoe International Airport Air Guard Station, home to a handful of C-130H aircraft. Saving them will test our congressional delegation's sway.

Under the recommendations—which must be approved by Congress and President Bush—Nellis would actually grow. That'll mean more personnel—there are 28,992 personnel on the base, which is nearly three times the size of the workforce in Clark County government, Southern Nevada's largest municipal entity, and a third the size of the MGM Mirage—and heightened annual economic impact: $3 billion compared $5 billion for the county. All of which has Givhan giddy—well, do soldiers get giddy?

"Although the recommendations are not final, they still offer a tantalizing peek into an exciting future for Nellis," he wrote in Bullseye, Nellis' weekly newspaper. "When all the moves are over, there would be more F-15s and F-16s at Nellis, as well as 1,412 more civilian and military personnel. All of these changes would come on top of the ongoing growth and transformation of the Air Warfare Center as it continues its critical role in keeping this country the most powerful air and space power in the world."

Last year, there were 2,328 folks living on base, 5,765 people living off base and, among them, 17,324 dependents. Part of Cate Berry's job—she's Nellis' commercial sponsorship and special events coordinator—is to keep them happy, healthy and occupied when they aren't helping to make the world safer.

"That means I'm very busy," says Berry, whose cheeky smile and peppy voice could probably soften a hardened soldier. "My primary goal is to organize events through services squadron that address morale, welfare and recreation."

Designed very much like a walkable city—land barons take note—Nellis' recreational outlets are nearby and frequently used. The theater is near the Burger King, which isn't far from the 16-lane Nellis "300" Bowling Center, which is in walking distance from the community center, swimming pool and Protestant chapel ("We have access to other faiths; if we don't have a have faith represented, then we refer people to our connections offered in the community," Berry says). Every two weeks, Berry takes first-term airmen and women to the 36-hole Sunrise Vista Golf Course, which has a junior golf program, pro shop and reasonable prices.

On the child side of things, there are two child-care development centers—one for infants and one for toddlers—as well as heavily used youth and teen centers. Nightlife activities are generally held at the Nellis Officers' Club; a local R&B band recently played there.

Every community should have a newspaper and the Bullseye fits the bill for Nellis, reporting on all facets of the base life. Among the items in the May 13 issue: Airmen Against Drunk Driving reported 363 potential saves; court martials were returned in seven cases—of the seven guilty convictions, six were for wrongful use of cocaine, marijuana or ecstasy, the seventh was for allowing other airmen to use a prescription drug (penalties ranged from confinement to hard labor to reductions in grade); a speakout question asked folks what they'd like to see in the paper (comics and more coverage of the units); a story on three Nellis teens selected for an Air Force aviation camp; as well as an activities calendar and photos and short write-ups on the "Warriors of the Week"—Airman 1st Class Robin McWhirter, a discharge paralegal who'd like more running tracks at Nellis, and Airman Gina Osborn, an information management apprentice who wants the ban on talking on cell phones while driving repealed.

Produced monthly by the 99th Services Marketing Department, the Nellis Navigator serves as a cultural calendar/coupon book. Think of it as a community newsletter. Page 5 of the May issue had lunch coupons for Nellis Officers' Club members and listed the club's various activities: Monday is "Cook Your Own Steak Night," Thursday is "Stir Fry Night." The book's cover touted a May 21 car show at Nellis, which Berry says was the brainchild of a few airmen who wanted to show off their vehicles. Six car clubs participated and 136 vehicles were exhibited, including a Delorean, a 1928 Fire Truck and 12 cars older than 1934. A motorcycle show is planned for the fall.

Nellis' second-largest event, its Independence Day celebration, which includes fireworks and a free festival July 3 at Freedom Park, drew nearly 10,000 attendees last year. The granddaddy of cultural events is the annual Aviation Nation air show. The largest free public event in Nevada, it has air races, replica aircraft, military demonstrations and performances from some of the nation's top civilian air performers.

"We try to appeal to a broad range of interests and you can walk to most of these things," says Berry, who's just getting started telling me all of the activities—canoe trips to Hoover Dam, horseback riding at Red Rock Canyon, trips to the Grand Canyon, camping outings, ethnic festivals (Asian-Pacific heritage celebrated in May). Last month, Nellis hosted a luncheon for 100 Holocaust survivors living in Vegas.

"There's always something to appeal to everybody."

Even military retirees, well, especially military retirees. There are 27,537 in metropolitan Las Vegas, according to Nellis officials. Retirees are the brains operating the technology that runs the first fully robotic pharmacy in air-combat command. They're also the cashiers behind the counter at the base exchange (BX) and commissary—think a military version of Wal-Mart. Givhan says some are also patients in the Mike O'Callaghan Veterans Hospital, a joint venture between the Veterans Administration and the Air Force.

"Half the people running the place are retirees," Givhan says only half-jokingly.

"I was at the gunnery school, before it was Nellis of course, in February and March 1943 and proudly graduated with silver wings. For our flying training, we were trucked to Indian Springs ... Less than six months later, I parachuted into captivity in Germany—shot down on my second mission ... I have fond memories of the gunnery school and wondered if there was such a thing as a roster of men who trained there during that time?"

Nellis started out as a "Western Air Express dirt runway, a water well and a small operations shack eight miles north of Las Vegas." In March 1941, Mayor John L. Russell deeded a 12,000-acre swath of land to the U.S. Army Quartermasters Corp. for the purpose of housing the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School, which would train gunners for combat duty, most immediately for World War II.

By the end of the next year, 9,117 gunners had graduated. Training peaked in 1943 and 1944, when 15,000 men and women graduated. By war's end, the number topped 45,000. Deactivated in January 1947, the school was reactivated a year later with the creation of the U.S. Air Force and in 1950 was renamed after Harris Nellis, a local resident and P-47 pilot who died in the Battle of the Bulge. In addition to preparing pilots for the Korean War—as well as subsequent conflicts—Nellis welcomed the Thunderbirds performing group (1956) and was closed briefly in June 1962 (two crashes in one day forced the grounding of all 105 flights). Years later, in 1966, the Tactical Fighter Weapons Center was established to meld the base's research and training functions. The 57th Fighter Wing was activated in 1969, marking the creation of the weapons school. Decades later, on January 14, 2003, Nellis received the first production of an F/A-22 fighter jet. The same year, Nellis was selected as the F-22 Force Development Evaluation program and Weapons School.

We're in Givhan's office, which isn't sequestered in the deep recesses of some gaudy City Hall office, but rather through a series of doors, and remarkably easy to get to. Contrary to popular opinion, he isn't the highest-ranking officer at Nellis. That distinction goes to Maj. Gen. Steve Goldstein, a two-star general, who lives on base and commands the Air Warfare Center and whose authority extends across the United States. "I'm his host," Givhan says. Also over Givhan is the commander of the 57th Wing, Nellis' largest flying wing with 150 aircraft. On Friday, Pentagon officials assigned the former commander, Brig. Gen. Greg Idhe, to take over the Pacific Air Operations Center at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. His replacement is Brig. Gen. William R. "I provide the infrastructure for his mission," Givhan says.

In uniform, Givhan looks fit. His handshake is and isn't what you'd expect from a soldier—it is firm, but it's not forceful. He's got salt-and-pepper gray hair and when he smiles, the right side of his mouth opens marginally wider than the left, making his mouth look asymmetrical. Very Tom Cruise-ish. Givhan's authority encompasses Nellis, the renamed Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs (home to the Predator spy plane fleet) and Nevada Test and Training Range. While mostly figurative—he answers to higher authority—the mayoral moniker aptly describes his involved-in-everything responsibilities. He has a mission support group commander who functions like a city manager, a chief civil engineer who functions like a director of public works, a lower-level commander with sheriff-like responsibilities, as well as a fire chief who answers to him. An around-the-clock job, by all accounts.

Givhan also oversees the 57th Wing's weapons school, which he describes as "Top Gun on Steriods." The school offers graduate-level instruction on the world's foremost air-combat tactics and has detachments at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Dyess Air Force in Texas, Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Hurlbert Field in Florida and Whiteman Air Force Base in Montana. Also under his supervision is the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group. He raves about the plane the group is testing.

"It's really neat to look up in the sky and see an FA-22 in the traffic pattern ... here it is, America's newest and greatest fighter in the world, the most capable fighter there is and we have it," Givhan says. "We've had CV-22s in here to do some testing (the plane can hover like a helicopter). I also have a ground combat training squadron as part of a security forces group up at Indian Springs. All the security forces going over to Iraq and Afghanistan have to come to train. We have a range where they can shoot all the weapons they might be employing in theater and they can do it in an environment that resembles the environment they're going to fight in. A lot of people tend to focus on the aircraft, but there are guys working on the flight line, people who are putting fuel in the planes ... there's this tremendous team effort to make things happen."

A command pilot with more than 2,500 flying hours, Givhan is as decorated as the base he represents. He served as U.S. air liaison officer to the French ground commander during the Gulf War and had staff assignments as chief of the Congressional Action Division for Air Force Legislative Liaison and as deputy military assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force. He was also a military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His awards and medals include Legion of Merit, French Croix de Guerre with silver star, Meritorious Service Medal with four oak-leaf clusters and Kuwait Liberation Medal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait Liberation Medal Government of Kuwait. This is his second assignment here—from 1997 to 1999, he was squadron commander of Air Warrior, the world's largest air exercise done in conjunction with the Army.

"It was a great assignment as preparation for this," he says of the exercise conducted under the 57th Wing. "This a large dynamic base with so many things going on. Things change so quickly."

The Nellis crew that helped nab Saddam Hussein, the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron, had been guiding unmanned Predator spy planes over Afghanistan and Iraq for months before capturing the Iraqi dictator on December 13, 2003. Though Givhan hadn't been assigned to Nellis then, he says this type of proactive military work is the future of warfare, a future Nellis is helping shape.

"The Predator has many different roles—intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance. It's able to look at things, stay for a long period looking at things and, for the armed ones, fire weapons when they see a target and engage the target if we don't have aircraft ready to roll in. We're now able to fight insurgents half a world away."

Givhan says approximately 600 people from Nellis are serving in theaters all over the world, a large contingent of them in Southwest Asia, supporting combat operations or being part of combat operations. "We have vehicle operators under the Logistics Readiness Squadron—transporters—that have been conducting armed escorts for Army convoys in Iraq. We have folks working with the Army on training. I have pinned Purple Hearts on folks who've been wounded." He says the only Nellis airman killed to date was Airman 1st Class Jess M. Samek, a 21-year-old flight engineer out of the 66th Rescue Squadron. According to published reports, he was on a helicopter landing accident in a mission to rescue an injured election worker in Western Afghanistan, about 105 miles of east of Shindand.

But just as important as getting airmen and women combat-ready, Givhan says, is taking care of their families when they're gone and helping returning soldiers reunite with their loved ones. "Someone who is deployed and worried about his or her family back here is somewhat losing that total focus you need when you're going into harm's way," he says. "Our family support services are extensive."

And that's what makes Nellis most of all, a family, one that takes Air Force protection more seriously in this post 9/11-world and one that, if Rumsfeld's recommendations are approved, will not only grow militarily—Givhan says getting more F-15s will allow simulation of a broader range of enemy aircraft—but also in cultural scope.

"At Nellis, you get to see the finest airman doing the neatest things, to see testing of the latest and greatest aircraft and to see training that's conducted on a scale you see nowhere else in the world," Givhan says. "But I've been a lot of places, and the relationships we have with local community are the finest you'll find anywhere."

For Tech Sgt. Edward M. Stewart, who works in dental logistics, the decision to live on base was simple: While in the military, he's never lived off base. More than insulating his family from a manic real-estate market that's rapidly pricing middle-class families out of the American dream, Stewart says base-living provides a bonus you can't pay for—security. The 37-year-old airman can jog at 3:30 a.m. without feeling like he has to look over his shoulder so much; he doesn't have to worry where his children (ages 8 and 11) are, or who they're with.

"Me and my wife have gotten to know folks in the neighborhood," says Stewart, who slightly resembles a shorter (and with more hair) version of New York Giants linebacker Michael Strahan. "My son and daughter have friends on base. Their friends have even spent the night. You have a certain peace of mind living on base. I also like the security being close to the job and facilities like the commissary and BX."

And having Las Vegas in your back yard, well, you can't beat that. The Stewarts recently attended the Artfest in Henderson, Summerlin's annual ice-cream festival, and visited Hoover Dam. Next month will mark three years in Las Vegas for the family. Of the three bases he's been at—the others were in Ramstein, Germany, and in Philadelphia—Nellis rates high.

"Ramstein and Nellis are two different worlds," he says. "In Germany, we had a language barrier, so we (Americans) had to rely on each other. In Las Vegas, we get to talk with fellow soldiers (Army soldiers also live on base). I like the interaction."

"I am a Japanese internal medicine doctor and aircraft fan. I especially like aircrafts of USAF. Nellis Air Force Base is one of the most famous bases among Japanese aircraft fans, and we call it 'holy place' because there are a large number of military aircraft."

Givhan says Nellis is much like its host city. At first, the comparison seems strained, given the seriousness of what goes at the base and Las Vegas' perpetual struggle to be taken seriously but, once digested, it doesn't seem so much of a stretch.

"The dynamism you find here at Nellis, you also find in the city. It's always, 'go, go, go,' with lots of things happening, people coming and going, big events all the time, important people coming in," Givhan says. "Las Vegas welcomes in millions a year in terms of the number of visitors. We have about 400,000 people coming through Nellis in a year. Big exercises bring in people from all over the world—air forces from other nations; airmen from other nations, other branches of the armed services. You might have the third-largest air force in the world training here ... Both Las Vegas and Nellis are destinations."

The similarities extend to the largely (but rapidly becoming not-so) blank canvas that is the city landscape. Developers are turning barren land into high-rises and multifamily homes. Nellis has a strategic master plan that will allow it to grow for years. Builders are only limited to their imaginations. With 12,000 square miles of air space and the 2.9 million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range, Nellis is ground zero for some of the most advanced combat testing in the world. Givhan brags that the Air Force invests the most money of all branches of the Armed Forces into its recruits—"that's why we have the best."

Hotel and casino moguls plow the equivalent of some cities' municipal budgets into their projects—that's why Las Vegas is the gaming capital of the world. People come to Vegas for fun. People come to Nellis to train.

"When you look out there on the ramp," Givhan says, "you may see the world's third-largest air force in terms of the number of airplanes and training. And you won't see just fighter jets, but B-2s, B-1s, B-52s, bombers, tankers and transport vehicles. It's a pretty awesome sight."

It's been 14 years since Matthew Holland lived on base, but the 31-year-old Cox Communications employee fondly remembers the time that he and his friends "could run around without worry." No gang members to avoid on the way home from school; no worries about bullies trying to thump him. "The main (parental) rule was you had to be in by the time the street lights came on," he says.

Now with a family of his own, Holland's looking for a neighborhood similar to Nellis, one where his 10-month-old son will able to run free, like he did. He's eyeing Mountain's Edge, but isn't sure if any community can re-create Nellis.

Through sending air personnel to speak at events and the honor guard out to perform, as well as volunteering (Martinez Elementary is a big beneficiary) and conducting tours, Nellis continues to extend its reach. "We're Little League baseball coaches, we're volunteers ... we're all around, we're members of your community," Givhan says. He gets a kick out of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps programs in area high schools. "When JROTC units have events on the base, it's fun to see these young people in uniforms salute you in the parking lot," he says.

Earlier this year, UNLV started an Air Force ROTC unit, the first such detachment in Nevada. "It's great for them to have Nellis in their back yard," he says. "What better way to motivate young men and women?"

Givhan, who sits on the Centennial's celebration committee, works with leaders of all the local municipalities, as well as the state's Homeland Security office, local law enforcement and fire departments—all in an effort to integrate the base into the life of the city and the city into the life of the base.

"When they (fire departments) encounter anything on the outside that looks like it might be munitions or a bomb or something that might have a military ordinance, our Explosive Ordinance Disposal team responds," he says. "That's just another way we interact with the community."