New ‘mayor’ coming to Robins Air Force Base

Robins Air Force Base will be getting a new installation commander soon.

The 78th Air Base Wing will have a change-of-command ceremony July 26, base spokesman Roland Leach said in an email.

Col. Lyle Drew will take over for Col. Jeff King, who has led the wing for the past two years.

The wing commander is also the installation commander, a role that is similar to that of the mayor of a city. The commander is in charge of security forces, the fire department, building and road maintenance and providing support to all units on base.

King is headed to the Pentagon to work for the deputy chief of staff for logistics, engineering and force protection.

Drew is now commander of the 49th Maintenance Group at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. He oversees 700 people who maintain 12 MQ-1 Predators and the 27 MQ-9 Reapers, which are unmanned aircraft, as well as the F-16.

He graduated from Purdue University in 1994 with a degree in agricultural engineering and received his first assignment in the Air Force in 1995. He later earned a master of business administration degree from Western New England College, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

This story has been corrected from a previous version that misstated the job King will be doing at the Pentagon.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "New ‘mayor’ coming to Robins Air Force Base."