Outgoing commander says NAS Fort Worth has ‘room to grow’

Friday’s ceremony at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth marked more than a change of command.

The colorful event also served as a retirement party for Navy Capt. Gil Miller.

For the last two years, Miller has overseen the air station, which is home to more than 11,000 active, reserve and civilian personnel for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

Amid the pomp and circumstance of the formal ceremony — including a color guard and the commanders being “piped aboard” as they would on a ship — Miller found a more informal way to signal that he was no longer in charge.

After his successor, Navy Capt. Michael Steffen, had formally assumed command, Miller pulled out his cellphone and slapped it in Steffen’s palm, letting him know that he would now be the one getting those phone calls and text messages in the middle of the night.

As he shook hands in a makeshift receiving line, Miller also had some hopes for the base’s future.

“I say we have room to grow,” Miller said. “There’s real estate on the flight line where we can put additional commands.”

Steffen comes to Fort Worth after serving as commander of the Maritime Support Wing, based in Coronado, Calif., across the bay from San Diego.

“I’m looking forward to working with our tenants on the base — the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy — and looking forward to helping them in their preparations for deployment,” Steffen said.

“I also look forward to working with the communities that surround the base in Fort Worth and looking to continue the great partnership we currently have to make the people and the base around it stronger.”

‘I watch it like a hawk’

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, who was the keynote speaker at the event, helped create the joint base after Carswell Air Force Base was targeted under the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1991.

The Defense Department would eventually recommend moving Naval Air Station Dallas to Fort Worth and consolidating commands from naval air stations in Illinois as well as Tennessee. Congress signed off in September 1993, and on Oct. 1, 1994, Carswell became Naval Air Station Fort Worth.

Granger noted that the air station now has more people than when it was an Air Force base. A state comptroller’s report in 2012 estimated the base’s annual economic impact at $2.3 billion.

“I watch it like a hawk,” Granger said. “I know everything that’s going on at this base, and I also know every time there’s something that might endanger this base, like if there’s another BRAC.

“For instance, one of the things they used against us was the communities were so close to the base. All of the towns and cities say the base is so important and so their development takes that into account.”

‘He’s an operator’

Miller said Steffen will enjoy the job but will find it challenging.

“Mike Steffen is very sharp,” Miller said. “He’s an operator. I think some of the administrative aspects of this job are going to drive him crazy. The operational aspects — he’ll love it. I think he’s a good fit.”

Steffen becomes the 11th commander since the joint base was established.

From 2009 to 2011, he served as the executive officer and then the commanding officer of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 60. Known as the “Jaguars,” the squadron was at the forefront of the Navy’s nighttime counterdrug operations.

Steffen had two combat tours in Iraq with Helicopter Combat Support Special Squadron 4, the “Red Wolves,” and HCS-5, the “Firehawks,” in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Outgoing commander says NAS Fort Worth has ‘room to grow’."