Our plane was built in 1957 and looked brand new. It is an amazing process and the team that fuels our bombers do it so well. The bombers rely on gas to fly their missions and introducing us to the tanker fleet was an education on how our bombers can fly all over the globe without having to land and refuel. The 8 th is primarily our bomber force or another 1/3 of our triad. The 20 th is primarily the ICBM bases or 1/3 of our triad. Global Strike is made up of the 20 th Air Force and the 8 th Air Force. This was my first flight on a tanker, and it was a great learning experience. Wednesday morning, we got a treat, a flight on a KC135 to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. I loved their confidence and excitement for the work. In our Air Force, young men and women aged in their late teens and early 20’s are given the responsibility for moving and maintaining our ICBM force. I also met a young staff sergeant who was stationed in Cheyenne for the past seven years and now teaches recruits his line of work. I have met many maintenance folks over the years, so seeing where they learned the trade was fun. This is where all the missile maintenance professionals who work in our missile field are trained. Next, we toured the 532 nd Training Squadron. It is hard to believe the warhead flies at 15,000 mph or Mach 23, and lands so accurately. It is very interesting to go down into the capsule where they are on alert just like our missileers do here at FE Warren. We learned about the missile system that was put on alert in 1970 and how it flew 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Island test range. We met with the missileers from Montana who were there to manage the launch.
It is critical that we prove our capabilities to ourselves, our allies, and just as importantly, our adversaries. The Air Force regularly pulls a Minute Man III missile from a silo and transports it intact to Vandenberg AFB, where it is launched to verify its reliability, accuracy, and performance. Next, we visited the 576 th Test Flight Squadron. SpaceX is not the only private space company at Vandenberg Firefly Aerospace had a rocket on the pad ready to launch while we were there. SpaceX has been selected by NASA to take us back to the moon and they have a target date of 2025 to get there. We learned the private space program is an essential partner to NASA and our military. They have flown 171 successful missions since its founding in 2002. I had no idea how common launches are today. We learned the first stage with all engines is around 60 percent of the cost of the rocket, so reusing them saves millions of dollars. They had two of the rocket’s first stages in the building, that had seen many trips to space and landed to be reused. Forty-eight hours later I’m in California and touring a SpaceX facility. She spent six months on the Space Station and traveled 84 million miles during her time. His wife, Megan made two trips into space: once on the Space Shuttle and once on a SpaceX rocket. During our SpaceX brief, Bob’s smiling picture was one of the first slides presented. Bob Behnken flew twice on the Space Shuttle and was on the first crew mission on a SpaceX Dragon Capsule. It was funny that I met two astronauts at CFD. Our day started at SpaceX Launch Complex Four. My dad worked at this base over 60 years ago, so it was special to make this trip. As a Global Strike Civic Leader, we get together a few times throughout the year to be educated on the missions of our Air Force. I flew from Cheyenne to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Monday morning. One sponsor told me he took off from Atlanta and landed in America I can’t think of a higher compliment to pay the City of Cheyenne. We have thousands of volunteers, but without the sponsors, we would not have a rodeo to put on.
I also spent time thanking our sponsors each day. They bring their team and volunteer for 10 days to drive and show off our carriages. The folks driving the wagons come from all over the country. Every day Judy and I rode in a wagon for parades and grand entries before the start of the rodeo. I found another group that also amazes me. I can’t say it often enough, but our volunteers are amazing! When you are mayor, you get to see a bit of the behind-the-scenes and realize the show would not happen without this dedicated bunch of folks. Judy and I are tired but so proud of our city and the team at CFD who makes this event happen. The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – August 5thĬHEYENNE – Cheyenne Frontier Days is finished for another year.
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