New Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex to stand up July 17

The Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, the heart of Robins Air Force Base, will be no more on July 17.

Air Force Materiel Command announced that will be the date the center will stand down and the new Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex will be established.

The move is part of an Air Force Materiel Command reorganization announced in November. Under the new set up, the three air logistics centers at Robins, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and Hill Air Force Base, Utah, will become air logistics complexes.

The three complexes will report to a new Air Force Sustainment Center that will be activated at Tinker on July 10.

Air Force Materiel Command announced the dates Monday along with a series of other dates for other bases involved in the reorganization, which will take the command from 12 centers to five. Officials say the changes will reduce costs by eliminating redundant layers of command. The command projects it will save $109 million per year.

“We are transitioning the command in a way that will create opportunities for more efficient and responsive support to the warfighter while also saving the taxpayer money,” Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, Air Force Materiel Command commander, said in a release.

Under the change, the 402nd Maintenance Wing will become the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, to be headed by Brig. Gen. (select) Cedric George.

On Friday Maj. Gen. Robert McMahon retired as the last commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, although Col. Evan Miller, the 402nd Maintenance Wing commander, will fill McMahon’s role until the transition takes place.

Miller said Tuesday that July 17 is actually the beginning of the transition. The initial operating capability date is actually Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year.

He said many people on base have been working diligently for months to prepare for the transition, and the progress has been discussed weekly at the mission control room meeting, in which top leaders of organizations around the base gather to discuss issues.

“We have been planning for this for quite a while,” Miller said. “I think we are as prepared for it as we can be.”

He said Lt. Gen. (select) Bruce Litchfield, who will be commander of the Air Force Sustainment Center, and Wolfenbarger are planning to attend the July 17 ceremony at Robins.

“It will be a very significant milestone for Robins Air Force Base,” Miller said.

To contact writer Wayne Crenshaw, call 256-9725.

This story was originally published June 19, 2012 at 1:48 PM with the headline "New Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex to stand up July 17 ."