In the Wilson household my Dad used to talk about rolling up your sleeves and getting the job done. Anyone who has spent time with Col Jimmy Schlabach knows that often he appears at events with his sleeves rolled up on his uniform, and we also know that Col Schlabach is one of those leaders who “gets the job done”, and his last two years in Minot certainly attest to that fact.
It was in July of 2025 that the 91st Missile Wing brought home the coveted Omaha Trophy. “The Omaha Trophy represents the highest civilian honor awarded to top-performing military units supporting U.S. Strategic Command’s USSTRATCOM strategic deterrence efforts. These Airmen work day in and day out with a level of grit, determination and dedication that I haven’t seen in my 26 years in the Air Force,” U.S. Air Force Col. James Schlabach, 91st Missile Wing commander said.
If the past two years at Minot Air Force Base as Commander of the 91st Missile Wing and the previous two years as Commander of the 91st Operations Group would seem like a blur to Schlabach, those of us who have had the pleasure of working with Col Schlabach for those four years are certainly sad to see his tenure at Minot end. And although I certainly don’t have access to information above the wing level at Minot Air Force Base, I would have to guess that Col Schlabach will indeed be missed as he ends his 27 year career in the U.S Air Force.
In a recent interview with Col Schlabach to review not only his two years at Minot Air Force Base, but his 27 years in the Air Force, the topic quickly turned to a recent visit by the CEO of the Air and Space Forces Association, Lt. General Burt Field, USAF (retired). Gen Field was the keynote speaker at the Commander’s Choice Awards banquet, and what he said from the podium that evening, I have heard from Col Schlabach several times the past four years. “I think he (Gen Field) was genuinely surprised, and then in awe. And then he said in earnest that this doesn’t happen other places” said Schlabach.
What Gen. Field was referring to is the support given to Minot Air Force Base by national legislators, several of whom took time to record video greetings for the event. “It’s the status quo here, but it’s just not normal,” according to Schlabach. But again, from an outsider’s point of view, Col. Schlabach also took time out of his afternoon schedule to sit down and talk about the Air Force and Minot Air Force Base with Gen. Field. The commander of the 91st Missile Wing, one of only three ICBM bases, and Minot Air Force Base — the single Air Force base that houses two legs of the nation’s nuclear triad — sat down and spoke at length with Gen. Field. It’s something that happens at Minot Air Force Base, and part of the legacy Col. Schlabach will leave behind. He is truly a leader who cares about the mission at hand and is eager to share his passion for Minot and Minot Air Force Base.
At our interview Col Schlabach was eager to share a story that helped paint the picture of Minot Air Force Base: “There was a Senator who visited us here at Minot Air Force Base, and his District was in a major metropolitan area that had about 80,000 service members in his district. We had dinner, and Mayor Jantzer was there, and Brekka Kramer was there…and as he came and sat down I noted to him that the Mayor was going to be here and the Chamber President was also going to be here. And he looked at me and said, the Mayor is coming? To me it was one of those, yes of course, answers. To him it was Oh my gosh. As the evening progressed I kind of sat back and didn’t have to say anything as Mayor Jantzer and the Senator had their conversation. Because of Mayor Jantzer’s experience with Task Force 21 and Brekka Kramer’s tie in with the Minot Air Force Base, it was a free flowing conversation. At the end of the conversation the Senator asked if Ms. Kramer could come out and talk to the Senator’s chamber about how to increase and bolster military and civic relations. They have more service members than Minot has people, and he (the senator) was asking her to come and teach them how to do military relations. That is special, and that spells it all out” according to Schlabach.
As we talked we agreed that Minot and Minot Air Force Base has gotten to the point “where standard operating procedures aren’t special, that we don’t even think about them. And as the name implies, that’s where the Magic happens. I have been so fortunate to be stationed here for so long to be able to see what this community does and how it pours itself into the base.
Not just the commander’s stuff, but all of the Airmen. We try to do things for the community and the community in return tries to do things for us (The Minot AFB). Col Lamarand and I have mentioned it several times, its Midwest values, and Midwest values of how I help my neighbor. Let me be a good neighbor, let me be there for you. You are there for each other. It doesn’t become a geographic location where you serve, it becomes home.”
And on the day that Col James Schlabach leaves Minot Air Force Base…have you thought about what that is going to be like? “I have thought about it a lot” answered Schlabach. “It’s wildly exciting and massively terrifying, all at the same time, because for 27 years this is what I’ve known, and to just up and change and go do something completely different. Something as simple as where do I live next. You know, I’ve been told where to live for a long time. I’ve got to be a normal American citizen that doesn’t get told where to live. It’s exhilarating and exciting at the same time. There are new opportunities and new things on the horizon. I don’t know where we are going to land, we’re going to go wherever opportunity is out there for us.
The decision to retire or not? I struggled with that for a long time because it’s leaving the service, it’ leaving the role I’ve known for 27 years. I’m leaving the enterprise behind. The Air Force has said that if I want to change my mind it would be OK. They (The Air Force) would love to have me keep serving, which is very humbling. I think about service, and I call it serving down. Serving the folks who serve us, I look at my role as serving those who serve underneath me. This is the last job I can have at a wing level, where I am working day to day with Airmen, and first term Airmen, and young folks. The positions that are next, while they are tremendously important and so needed…it’s just for me for my gifts and my personality, for the things that I can excel at, it just all didn’t match. I don’t want to do something and be half-hearted in it. I saw myself as not being all in, and I didn’t want to keep wearing the uniform if that was the case. I hit the peak of where I could have ever dreamed of being.”
And so after being here for these past four years, any final thoughts about Minot? “The nice thing about Minot is that not only am I hearing good things, but I’m seeing them, I’m feeling them, I’m the recipient of them and I get to tell everybody else. So, when people say I’ve head good things about Minot, they are hearing them from me. The only thing that has changed, and I didn’t think it was possible, was that it keeps growing year after year. I keep saying this, that when I think the support is maxed out, the community finds a way to show me that I’m not right. There’s always a little bit more and a little bit more.
What your most proud of?
“There are so many, but the one single event that I am most proud of is the way this wing performed in the NSI (Nuclear Surety Inspection). The Airmen here absolutely crushed it. I remember getting the report on that Friday morning. If you had asked me to write my dream report at the end, I wouldn’t have written it that good. I knew the Airmen’s hard work had paid off.”
And final thoughts?
Leaving here and leaving the service, there are defining moments when you see what it’s all about. You get to go to schools to celebrate Month of the Military Child and you get to go to Task Force 21 and see what they do, and when I’m out in the missile fields and I see farmers plowing a field…you see those things and you realize what’s it’s about. That’s why we’re here and that’s why we serve. As Americans we have a collective set of values that the vast majority of us agree on; liberty, freedom, quality, and that no one should trample on that. It’s a God given right as Americans, and that’s what we do.
The influence that this state of the union has over the rest is so dis-proportionate to the population. It just shows just how important the people of this community and state are. It’s an honor to serve here, and it’s been an honor. One of the greatest honor I have is that when I leave here in July I will have served of my 8 years of the 27 year career here in Minot. That’s over ¼ of my career. And there’s no place where I would have been proud to serve longer than right here. It’s been fantastic, and it’s going to be really hard to leave. But, this is family, and family will always welcome you back.
