I Was Hoping To Get Back Here

“I like it here, I respect the mission, you can impact people in a different way and it’s more in my comfort zone, anyway” says Chief Wayne Sharp now Command Chief of the 5th Bomb Wing, as he talks about his return to Minot Air Force Base.

Chief Sharp and I first met in 2020 when the Northern Sentry was part of the media team that did interviews with the newly promoted Chief Master Sergeants. At that time both he and his spouse, Lisa, were active duty stationed at Minot Air Force Base. Lisa has since retired and is working civil service at Minot AFB in Logistics Readiness as a security manager. The Sharps have a 22 year old son, Elijah and a 20 year old daughter, Lyanah, who are both living in Wichita Falls, going to college; and a 10 year old daughter, Cierah who is living in Minot with her parents and is a 5th grader at North Plains Elementary, and “she’s excited about the snow” according to Chief Sharp.

Chief Sharp let’s talk about experience vs. expectations. What’s it like coming back to Minot Air Force Base?
Chief Sharp: It’s a little bit busier than what I expected, but I can tell you what I’ve learned over the course of the last 2 months is that you are as busy as you make yourself. You know, you can create work for yourself. I’ve gotten my feet on the ground, and I feel good about the direction things are going. It’s what I expected and more.

What’s the family chemistry like this time back at Minot? How’s it going?
I think the chemistry is good. My daughter hit the ground like she had never left here, with friends and meeting new people. My wife is at peace being retired. The infrastructure downtown is improved, better than it was 4 years ago. But I can tell you that we aren’t in particular looking forward to the cold weather, but we’ll play that by ear.
So yeah, my family is enjoying it, their enjoying the community, getting out and seeing things so, so far, so good.

You haven’t been here that long, but what are the challenges so far?
My biggest challenge is controlling expectations. You want to come in and make this big major impact right away, and it takes time and really I think I can call it COVID hangover. Trying to get the base back to a point where it’s fully operational. I’m talking operational from the perspective of Airmen, dorm Airmen having access to things after hours. But when we do bring things like the bowling alley back, we need people to utilize it. So, I guess I can say the biggest challenge is getting the installation back in operation from all aspects.

So, looking to the future?
I’m looking to establish a civic leader engagement panel. What that is would be a way to engage with some of the key leadership entities in the civic community to talk about cost of living, to talk about access to medical care, to talk about schools and education. I’ve also come to learn that the local community would like to know more. We also want to be able to ask local leader about the why’s in the community, explaining the answers right to the Airmen, so we can put transparency in the process. We are trying to start a ride share program on base, and that’s coming along. We especially want to implement the ride shares, if possible at the airport. Or say they get to the gate, and they don’t have a ride so they start walking down the road and you can be a good wingman give ‘em a ride. And I’ve talked to Mayor about putting an actual welcome center in the airport. Dorm of the quarter, we’re getting it started. Two awards, one for the best looking room and one for the cleanest room.

We’d like to bring back the Sportsmen’s feed, planned for the Conference Playoff weekend of the NFL.

In your view, is there a much faster pace on Minot Air Force Base today than when you were here before?
Chief Sharp: From the 10,000 foot level, I would have to say yes, and what’s driving that is the great power competition. We’re trying to modernize as best as possible to stay ahead. It’s definitely sped up in the past 4 years because of where I am at and what I see, and of course what I know. And that goes back to the Airmen that we are getting in. We need to move a little quicker to get them trained. We have a lot of first term Airmen, in fact we have the largest first term Airmen program in the Air Force at Minot Air Force Base, so that alone creates a level of urgency to get them trained and ready to go. Events like a bomber task force is a show of force. The requirement for a show of force is a lot higher today than it was in 2018.

Are there different expectations of the first term Airmen than when you entered the service?
Chief Sharp: Well first of all, we are definitely blessed in that the first term Airmen coming in today are a whole lot smarter than back in 1998 when I came in, and so, because they are a lot smarter, and we know they are a lot smarter we levy a whole lot more expectations on them. The Chief of the Air Force just said there is a huge difference between individualism and individuality. Individualism is something we don’t need when we are trying to establish teamwork. I still think that our challenge is going to be standards of discipline and believe me little things matter when it comes to discipline.

The one caveat, I do think we are in great hands right now. I believe we have the best Air Force in history right now, based on skill levels, and based on knowledge and based on ability to execute.