Col. John Poole has been the commander of the 375th Air Mobility Wing, which runs Scott Air Force Base, for 81 days.
During that time, Poole said he’s tried to learn as much as possible about its daily operations — like how a detachment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture manages wildlife on the airfield or the nuances of each individual squadron.
“There’s never enough time is generally how it feels,” he said.
So far, Poole said he’s avoided making big changes just to make big changes. For the most part, the previous commander, Col. Chris Robinson, and Poole think alike. However, some change could be coming.
Over the next couple of weeks, he and his leadership team will write strategic plans for the remainder of his two years running the base.
From the 10,000-foot view, Poole said he’d like to make sure all members are on the same page, working toward the goal of becoming combat ready, which is a directive from the federal government.
The Texas native returned to the Metro East base after running Dyess Air Force Base just outside Abilene, Texas, in the central part of the state. He served two earlier stints at Scott.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Will Bauer: You’ve had a couple of months in your job as the leader of Scott Air Force Base — the 375th, I should say. What have you learned so far?
John Poole: Well, a ton. I’ve learned something new every single day. Even though this is my third assignment at Scott, there are things that go on in this base that I was never exposed to before. I had no idea, like just how much work goes on behind the scenes for some of the operations here on the base. It's hard to pinpoint one specific thing, just because there are so many details. I've had a pretty good learning plan, going through there of working big to small, down to individual squadrons, or shops or functions kind of within some of those squadrons.
Bauer: You mentioned that you’re returning for your third time here at Scott. I know that’s just a part of military life — being assigned to different places for a few years at a time. Is that weird, though, to come back to the Metro East?
Poole: No, not weird at all. My family and I were excited about it. We always enjoyed our time — the two other times that we were here. We've enjoyed our time at Scott. The Metro East specifically is an amazing area. You have access to everything you would want. The community is so inviting to us. It’s so gracious.
Bauer: To give a reader of this conversation a little better understanding of what exactly you guys do here at the 375th, could you explain what the day to day looks like for you and for everyone that you're responsible for?
Poole: We have three major responsibilities, I'd say, within the 375th. One: We have an installation mission. If you think about this base as, let's say, an aircraft carrier — we operate the ship. We keep the ship afloat and chugging through the water. And then we have mission partners who also reside on this base — 34 or 35 of them — that have their own mission and their own function that they're trying to fulfill for our Department of Defense. So that's the aircraft that are operating off this aircraft carrier, if you want to think about it that way. And the 375th Air Mobility Wing has aircraft that fly all over the world. We have the aeromedical evacuation squadrons. Anyone who was a patient anywhere in the deployed system, or out of the continental U.S., if they need to be moved for care, they come in contact somewhere with the medical evacuation teams, the aeromedical evacuation teams, that are out in the system for patient movement.
Bauer: Now that you’re a few months into the job, is there anything that Col. John Poole is doing differently? Or maybe just some way that you’re putting your mark or your stamp on operations here that was different than before?
Poole: One: It’s not about me. I think the beauty of being here at this moment is that I get to build upon the foundation that was already set. So the previous commander, Col. Chris Robinson and his command team, we see the world very similarly. We see the challenges that the Air Force and our nation are facing very similarly. He had taken some steps to change the culture to focus on combat readiness. It's not that I'm doing things differently. It's just now that the wing is in this place, and now we're focused on this expeditionary air base capability in the Air Force Generation tasking that we'll have coming up. So we're building upon that combat readiness to actually go employ it.
Bauer: How long do your assignments usually last?
Poole: Usually, about two years.
Bauer: It is hard to get a lot done in two years? You said you're still learning, and you'll be learning probably until you get your next assignment. Is it hard to figure out all the nuance, all the details and context — and then all of a sudden you have a new assignment?
Poole: There's never enough time is generally how it feels. I think I came into it with what I felt like was a pretty solid plan. It's how I attacked my last command assignment. You need to be really intentional with the time that you have. I've set aside about the first 60 to 90 days to learn. Then, there's a period of about two weeks where we're going to formulate the strategic plan for the next 18 months, and then we're going to execute. I think you have to be careful, though. Anytime you step into a new role as a leader, or the organization has new leadership, you can induce a lot of turbulence into the organization just by changing everything — change for change's sake or change for my preference or change because I don't understand why things were the way they were, and I just want it different. So, I've been intentional, again, kind of not not changing anything. Then, when we build this plan, there’s going to be a lot of change in that for sure.
Bauer: As you go into those meetings over the next two weeks for your strategic plans, what are some of the things that you are going to be addressing, and what goals will you want to come away with — without revealing military secrets?
Poole: Building a shared understanding, so that everyone understands why we're doing what we're doing. I think at the macro level that's what I'm focused on. At the intermediate level, I see three focus areas that we're here to get after. And that's to operate the flagship, this garrison mission that we're talking about in all conditions, deploy forces forward and then seize competitive advantage.
Bauer: Do you have other goals for Scott Air Force Base over your two years here?
Poole: Part of the game plan, or one of the objectives that I want to hit in there, is a long-term, 10- or 12-year plan for facilities. This is an amazing base — one of the oldest in the Air Force, built originally in 1917. A lot of the buildings, like this one right here, was built in the 1930s as part of a Great Depression-era works program. You have historic buildings but also some aging infrastructure. You also have a cutting-edge global mission that's run from this location. You have to be intentional about how you're going to continue to improve the base and improve the infrastructure. I'm not implying that wasn't done before, but I think something longer than just the two years of my tenure is needed. We’re kind of at this moment in our time to make sure that the base is on a footing to ensure that we're able to meet that installation mission for the next 40 years because of work that's done over the next 10 years.
Bauer: On a more personal note, I read that you’re a baseball fan — or at least you and your family have been to 25 of 30 Major League Baseball parks.
Poole: We've been to 25 of 30. We've been to opening day. We've been to all levels of playoffs — so the wild card, Division Series, NLCS and then a World Series. It was just one game for each of them. We didn't go to all seven games, home and away, but it was a good experience. We feel like, other than spring training and an All-Star Game, we've kind of almost filled out our bingo card.
