Friends of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base holds fundraising gala
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 14, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Lt. Gen. (retired) Ralph Jodice speaks during the Friends of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base's third annual fundraising gala Saturday night at Walnut Creek Country Club.
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base has 31 squadrons, but Goldsboro and Wayne County, like the spirit-lifting 12th man on a football team, play a vital role in the base's success, Lt. Gen. (retired) Ralph Jodice said.
"You are that other squadron that enables the rest of them to do the job that they need to do... you are the ones who continue to make it happen," he said.
Jodice, a former NATO commander, and who formerly commanded the 335th Fighter Squadron and 4th Operations Group at Seymour Johnson, was the keynote speaker for the Friends of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base's third annual fundraising gala held Saturday night at Walnut Creek Country Club.
"It always feels like home every time we come back," Jodice said. "Thank you for always making us feel welcome, and you make everybody feel welcome because it is always about people.
"We always talk about mission... but what does it really come down to? It comes down to people."
It means working together, coming up with solutions, facing challenges and doing the right thing right and for the right reasons, the reasons being the airmen because it is all about people, he said.
"It is working with other such great teams. It is partnering with other communities," Jodice said. "It's being involved in the military affairs community, the state and other communities in the local area. It is the support that you all bring. It is opening your hearts. It is opening your community and bringing people in. It is about making your schools better. It is about revitalizing downtown. I know the (schools) superintendent here is doing an awesome job in bringing schools up to the caliber that we really, really desire.
"You can have the Gucciest stuff in the world. You can have the bestest command operations center. You can have the newest, bestest airplanes. You can have the bestest building. But it takes people to make it happen. It takes the people who are focused on the mission, who have the right attitude, work together as team and are led by great individuals."
Speaking without notes, Jodice walked among the 250 people at the event.
"What makes this community, what makes Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, what makes Goldsboro, what makes the Military Affairs Committee and what makes the Friends of Seymour work?" Jodice said. "And why do people feel like they have come home, and they are a part of this community?"
It starts out with focus on a mission and understanding what that mission is, he said. It also about embracing that mission and being a part of it regardless of what a person does, he said.
"Inside that focus, it starts out with a vision and that vision, and I am going to steal this from the wing commander (Col. Mark Slocum), is how do we make this better?" Jodice said. "You have confidence and optimism that you will be able to fulfill those promises you have made and to get to that vision."
It also requires a passion so that every day when a person comes in to "strap on the mission" they are going to do everything they can to make it better, Jodice said.
"The last part of focus is resolve, the resolve to continue to make it better" he said.
Jodice said he thinks that attitude also has played a role in the community's success and in Goldsboro and Wayne County being recently designated as a Great American Defense Community.
"That is awesome," he said. "Again, that just doesn't happen. There is a lot of positive attitude that goes into that.
The final part is teamwork, and when a team is put together the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, he said.
"And that is how you make it happen," he said. "So I will leave you with one last thing. I will leave you with a charge. It is a very simple charge on what you do next, where do you go? When I was a kid my parents used to tell me just do your best."
That is all it comes down to, Jodice said.
"Do your best and everything else will take care of itself," he said. "Just do your best. That is my charge to you tonight. You have done your best. You have done it throughout the years, and you continue to do it."
And it shows, he said.
Also Saturday, John Simmons, co-founder and managing partner with The Roosevelt Group, gave a briefing on the efforts of the consulting group on behalf of Friends of Seymour Johnson AFB.
Simmons said his father served at Seymour Johnson so he has a personal interest in serving the community.
Exciting things going on, he said, perhaps the most exciting is the base's designation as the preferred alternative for the first Reserve-led KC-46A Pegasus main operating base -- a decision that puts the base "in the lead" in the race for the branch's new state-of-the-art aerial refueler.
"You are getting the new tanker, the KC-46A if we keep riding herd on this because you are just the preferred alternative," he said. "It is going to be the next chief, the next secretary (of the Air Force), the next administration that determines if you get the tankers.
"You are the preferred alternative because of your active Reserve association and plus you are a great community to do this."
There also will be an effort to secure the remotely-controlled MQ9 Reaper aircraft, he said.
"They are looking to have a control element up at Langley (AFB in Virginia), but they want 30 or 40 of these MQ9s to find a home on the East Coast," he said. "We think Seymour Johnson should be in the running, and it is. So I would tell you the military value of this base is extremely high."
There are a number of pending tough issues for the military, but Congress is not going to deal with them during an election, he said.
"I am not telling you there is going to be a BRAC," he said. "I don't care if there is a BRAC or not because we are working every day to deal with missions, budget cuts, infrastructure challenges."
A study is being driven by the Air Force that says it has 30 percent excess capacity, he said.
"That report is being delivered to the (Capitol) Hill to say exactly where they envision all this excess capacity," he said. "For us, I don't believe that we will be faced with a BRAC. I believe it will be an opportunity to grow.
"But you have got to be vigilant on this because there are lots of people I know who are representing other communities."
BRAC is serious, 350 installations have been closed, he said. The government does not care about the economic impact, he said.
"It is really about the military value," he said.