FORT SMITH -- Col. Bobbi Doorenbos took over Sunday as the first female commander of an Arkansas Air National Guard wing, but the designation doesn't impress her much.
"I've been a female all my life," she said. "So, personally for me, the bigger deal is being a commander for the first time."
Doorenbos, whose previous assignment was commanding the 214th Reconnaissance Group in Arizona, took over as the wing's commander in a ceremony Sunday from Col. Mark Anderson, ending his nearly three-year command of the unit.
Anderson's new assignment is at the Arkansas National Guard Joint Force Headquarters at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock, according to a wing news release.
Doorenbos will lead about 1,000 wing members as they continue to transition from flying the A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed the Warthog, to three new missions: remotely piloted aircraft; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and space targeting.
Doorenbos said Friday that she had about 18 months of experience with the remotely piloted aircraft and the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions as commander of the 214th at Davis-Montham Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.
Using satellite and fiber-optic cable links, pilots on the ground in one location can operate the remotely piloted aircraft anywhere in the world.
She is qualified to operate the MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft of the 214th Reconnaissance Group but said she will have to undergo more training on the MQ-9 Reaper that the 188th will be operating.
Doorenbos' experience with operating remotely piloted aircraft will aid the wing's transition, she said. She'll be able to alert members to unforeseen problems and steer them around some of the pitfalls they may encounter.
Doorenbos said she sees the high-tech missions the wing is preparing for as the wave of the future in warfare. The tasks they are going to perform and the data they are going to generate will be in great demand by battlefield commanders, she said.
"I think we're going to be a part of something big that's going to be very important," she said.
In the short time that she has been in Fort Smith preparing for her new assignment, Doorenbos said she has observed that wing members have embraced the changes and are working with enthusiasm.
At a Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast Friday, Anderson's final public speech as commander of the 188th, he spoke about the wing's changes.
"This is by far the largest and most complex conversion that our organization has had," he said. "It's going to be the longest conversion that we've ever gone through."
The conversion, which has been underway for most of the past year, involves half of the wing's membership getting new jobs, many of which require months of training that is often away from home.
Its members also underwent extensive investigations to upgrade their security clearances to top secret, Anderson said.
He said about 100 members of the 123rd Intelligence Squadron will move from Little Rock to Fort Smith this summer or fall as part of the combined missions on remote piloted aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. He said no other base in the country will have the two missions being performed on a single base at the same time.
To handle those and the space targeting mission, he said, the 188th has received $14 million for construction of a 40,000-square-foot operations building.
The new missions will have benefits for the community, he said. Members will be acquiring skills in such areas as information technology, computer programming, network security and data analysis, as well as remotely piloted aircraft.
"The workforce we are going to have is going to be different from anything we've ever had," Anderson said.
The results could lead to a wing "brain drain" with area businesses luring away some skilled Guard members with promises of six-figure salaries, he said. Or it could result in a "brain gain," drawing businesses to Fort Smith to take advantage of the specially trained workforce and give those people good civilian jobs.
Doorenbos is breaking the gender barrier in the Air National Guard, but that barrier in the state's Army National Guard has been down for a long time.
It has taken time for women to work their way up the chain of command, Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Matt Snead said. But Arkansas has entered the era where more positions and programs have opened for women to rise to command positions, he said.
Brig. Gen. Patricia Anslow is commander of the Arkansas Army National Guard and assistant adjutant general.
Some other female commanders include Col. Erica Ingram, who is commander of the 871 Troop Command, a 700-member unit based in Little Rock. She also is the first black female battalion commander.
Retired Col. Cissy Rucker, director of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, spent 33 years in the Arkansas National Guard. Her assignments included airfield commander, surface maintenance manager, maintenance manager and state public affairs officer.
Col. Karen Gattis is the former commander of the 77th Theater Aviation Brigade. Snead said Gattis no longer commands the unit but is still in the Arkansas National Guard.
NW News on 01/12/2015