News

New commander has drive to meet wing Reservists, execute mission

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  Col. Scott McLaughlin, 446th Airlift Wing commander, McChord Field, Washington, is no stranger to the Pacific Northwest, having spent a good deal of his youth in Southern Oregon.  He is also no stranger to  command, serving as an operations group commander and squadron commander at his last two assignments.  But living in the Puget Sound Region and serving as a wing commander are both new experiences for the 28-year Air Force veteran.

McLaughlin believes serving as commander of the 349th Operations Group at Travis Air Force Base, California, the largest operations group in Air Force Reserve Command, helped prepare him for command of the 446th Airlift Wing here.

"My time at Travis helped prepare me in many ways to be the 446th Airlift Wing commander, but there are many differences between Travis and McChord," said McLaughlin.  "McChord is equally as busy but has some pretty unique mission sets.  I'm also learning many things about Joint Base Lewis-McChord as a whole and how we integrate with the Army under the joint base model.  I'm going to have to educate myself quickly to understand the functional relationships between us and the Army."

A long-time C-5 pilot, McLaughlin is looking forward to flying the C-17 Globemaster.

"I've flown on C-17 training missions, but I'm not checked out in the aircraft yet.  I will be doing that in February," he said. "I've flown the simulator a few times and I'm really looking forward to learning how to fly the C-17.  It's a Cadillac compared to the C-5."

The new commander is also keenly interested in effective and efficient mission execution while being faced with an austere fiscal environment in fiscal year 2015 and beyond.

"The challenges I'm seeing right now stem from significant cuts in military funding and the proposed decrease in the number of  C-17 aircraft assigned at McChord Field," said the colonel. "Right now my goal is to successfully navigate the uncertainty surrounding the proposed FY 15 Presidential Budget and its associated personnel cuts.  We have roughly 172 proposed personnel losses under PB 15; about 151 traditional reservists and 21 air reserve technicians, but we're actively pursuing ways to mitigate the losses and we're making significant progress in that regard. Despite budgetary constraints, however, my intent is to focus on the basics of effective funding, equipping, training, and evaluating to provide combat ready airman to support the combatant commanders."

After spending time with the Department of Justice following college, McLaughlin pursued his life-long dream to fly airplanes and attended Officer Training School in 1986. 

"I never really had a desire to be a fighter pilot and I've always been interested in flying large aircraft. At one point in my life, I did think I wanted to be a commercial airline pilot, but that never really panned out for me. The more I stayed in the Air Force, the more I loved it.  Ultimately, I decided I wanted to make the Air Force a career and flying airplanes is just an added benefit to do what I'm doing now," he said.

Not one to sit still in his office for any length of time, Reservists in the wing can expect to see the colonel in their work areas on a regular basis.

"I like to do frequent unit visits.  I'd rather not sit in my office all day, so I'll just jump in my car or walk around the 446th campus to see how folks are doing.  I don't know if they like that or not, but I'd really rather get out and talk to people.  It's a habit I intend to keep," said McLaughlin.

While out visiting the units, the colonel intends to continue sharing his thoughts on leadership.

"Leadership starts with honesty.  I really want our Airmen to be honest about how their units are doing. You don't have to beat around the bush with me and I value honest, unvarnished data on which to base important decisions affecting the wing," said McLaughlin.

Another important aspect of the colonel's leadership philosophy is accountability.

"We need to set realistic and achievable goals and hold people accountable to them.  More importantly, we need to foster an environment of mutual respect where everyone has a voice in how we execute our mission," he said.

Joining the 446th AW has brought McLaughlin to an area he's excited to explore.

"Although I spent a lot of time in Oregon and was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane (Washington), I never really had the opportunity to spend much time in Western Washington.  I'm really looking forward to exploring the area," he said. "And I'm really looking forward to finding time to learn to sail.  So if there are any sailing instructors out there, please give me a call."