Lt. Gen. Jodice talks about community, base relationship
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 discusses the community's relationship with Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
The relationship between Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and the surrounding community is the standard that others measure themselves by, Lt. Gen. (retired) Ralph Jodice told the News-Argus in an interview.
"Many communities and military installations have some type of an interaction, but very, very few as interactive and lively and as vibrant as this Military Affairs Committee and now this Friends of Seymour," he said.
"I believe that those two entities complement each other in how they go about in working with the base and helping it out in many different ways."
That is true whether it is giving a few hundred dollars to pay for an annual or quarterly award, or lobbying Congress for money to fix the runway, Jodice said.
"Or recognizing that we have a 150 people deployed, and what do we do to look after their families," he said. "I think this relationship is the standard which many measure themselves against -- trying to figure out how do we do this?
"Sure in the end we want to take care of the mission, but what is really important is the people. It is about taking care of people because it is people who get the job done."
Jodice first came to Seymour Johnson AFB in 1990 and over the ensuring 11 years nearly eight were spent here.
"It is home, and it really feels like home every time we come and visit," he said. "One of the things that has changed (at the base) is continuing to upgrade facilities and continuing to make projects and things that take care of people throughout in all things they do.
"I think one thing that has stayed very strong, but continues to improve, is that base and community interaction and that base and community relationship. There is no place else like it. Everybody else around our Air Force and around the Department of Defense looks at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina and goes, 'How do you guys do this? What makes it work?'"
Being named a top 10 American Defense Community is a "huge compliment" to both the base and the community, Jodice said.
Jodice said that same type of close personal interaction was present when he was stationed at Seymour Johnson and that he thinks there is a continuous drive and desire to make it better.
"Many of the folks here tonight I have known for many, many years," he said. "It has always been that way. I think it has been that way because the base and the community recognize that neither one can do it without the other.
"They really need each other to make it happen and to get the mission done on the base, to get the community things done that need to be done. There has to be this collaboration between the two entities and not to be separate entities, but to really become as one."
Jodice said he believes that the Air Force, the military and the Department of Defense pay attention to those kinds of things.
"It might not completely drive it to a specific decision, but I think that in the end it makes a difference," he said.
It is important, he said, to have strong community relationships and a strong community that is working with the Department of Defense and Congress to ensure they continue to understand the base's importance not only for what it brings to the community, but what it brings to the nation and what is needed to continue to take care of business around the world.
"I think those community relationships are important," he said. "I think people pay attention to them. It doesn't necessarily drive it. If the Department of Defense says, 'We are going to close this base or post,' for let's say the mission is not there, then they will do that.
"But I think what has happened here is the mission continues, and the mission will continue to stay as you look to the future and potential possibilities. I think the community plays a big role in that as they do their part in working with the Department of Defense and working with senators and congressmen from the area."
Encroachment continues to be a problem for many military installations around the nation, he said.
When the installations were built decades ago they were more removed from development, Jodice said.
But as communities have grown so has encroachment, he said.
"So the involvement by the community to say here's why this encroachment is important because here is the effect it will have on the base, and here is the effect it will have on the mission.
"But here is also the effect it will have on the community from a negative perspective."
One recent example was a proposed wind farm that would have affected Dare County bombing range used by the base's jets.
Jodice said he believes in the concept of wind farms, but that there are certain places for them.
As for BRAC, Jodice said that anything he might could say would be what he would see in the newspaper.
"They are discussed," he said. "Congressmen and senators are leery and have concerns about them because they realize that it takes away jobs in their areas. That goes back to that collaboration between the base and the community saying if you BRAC this base, whether you take the whole thing away, or take part of it away, here is the economic impact it is going to have.
"Also, to be perfectly honest, in my opinion, we have, as an overall defense establishment, have made plenty of cuts and have made bases smaller or taken away missions and closed plenty. If we continue to go down that road, then we are going to lose some very effective combat power across all the services is my personal opinion."