Tyndall officials give update on rebuild

Sep. 12--PANAMA CITY -- Tyndall Air Force Base is undertaking most of its missions again and is deep into repair planning, designing and demolition work 11 months after Hurricane Michael, base officials said Thursday.

During the third Industry Day event at Florida State University-Panama City, Tyndall officials gave updates on rebuilding the base after the Category 5 hurricane.

The Industry Day events are intended to reach out to and maintain partnerships with defense industry partners and local communities. Thursday drew a standing room crowd.

"Our airmen have implemented countless innovative temporary fixes to bring missions back online consistent with our secretary's guidance," said Col. Brian Laidlaw, commander of the 325th Fighter Wing. "Today at Tyndall we're doing nearly all of our pre-storm missions. We're doing it with about 80% of our people and we're doing it at only half of our facilities because that's all that survived."

Hurricane Michael made landfall near Tyndall and Mexico Beach more than 11 months ago, devastating the areas and nearby communities. Military and political officials, including President Donald Trump, have vowed Tyndall will be rebuilt.

Permanent repairs, planning and pre-design, demolition and design work are underway, according to a presented timeline. Permanent construction is expected to go into fiscal year 2024.

Brig. Gen. Patrice Melancon, executive director of the Tyndall Program Management Office, said construction won't be done all at once and asked attendees to think about the rebuild ideas presented Thursday.

"We are going to be able to phase it some but it is going to be a lot of construction," Melancon said. "We know that our partners in the community are also going through a lot of construction, so there's going to be a lot going on."

Bay Defense Alliance President Tom Neubauer said the Air Force has committed to rebuilding Tyndall as the "base of the future" that can support "next-generation missions for the next 70 years." Tyndall will get up to three squadrons of F-35s starting in 2023 and remains the "preferred alternative" as the future home of 24 MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft, Laidlaw said.

"It's important to know our defense community is about one-third of our economy but more than that, for the last 70 years, these military members and families have been part of Tyndall Air Force Base and this community," Neubauer said. "That's the fiber of our community. That's what makes our community tick and losing Tyndall would have been devastating to this community."

Andrew Gonyo said he attended because the company he works for, DynCorp International, provides services to the Air Force and other government partners. He called Industry Day "well-organized."

"We're out here to see what we can do and what folks need," Gonyo said. The rebuild at Tyndall "is really important. It's probably going to take a while, so we're interested to see how we can be involved with it."

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