By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

Joy Stout has a photograph of her high-school classmate Howard Chandler in full military uniform hanging on a wall at Pizza By Stout.

“Last year, some clean-cut guys were sitting up front,” she said. “One of them asked me if I knew who the guy was in the picture. I said heck yes. I went to high school with him. That’s Howard Chandler.

“He asked me: ‘Is he from here?’ I told him he’s a Joplin boy, all right.”

The young man paused, Stout said, “He then said: ‘That’s my boss.’”

The young men were in the U.S. Air Force. Gen. Carrol H. “Howie” Chandler, their boss, recently was named the new vice chief of staff of the Air Force. After command stints in Alaska, Hawaii, Italy and Saudi Arabia, he is now the No. 2 man for the Air Force at the Pentagon.

Stout and Chandler are 1970 graduates of Parkwood High School in Joplin.

“In school, Howard was always out front at school and football assemblies, but it was never: ‘Hey, look at me.’ He didn’t want to be in the limelight,” she said. “But he was somebody you could rely on. He was a leader even then on the student council.”

Another classmate, Larry Payne, director of spiritual care for Baptist-St. Anthony’s Hospital in Amarillo, Texas, played football with Chandler. Both were mentored by Coach Dewey Combs. Payne was a wide receiver. Chandler was a running back.

“Howard and I played on the same athletic teams from East Junior High to our final football game against Joplin Memorial. We won 34-7. We were co-captains of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle at Parkwood High School,” he said.

“He had a team spirit then that made him a leader in everything he did. I still laugh at the photo of him as best man in my 1971 wedding, with shaving cream across his face from the artistic work he did on my car.”

After high school graduation, Chandler attended the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo., graduating with a bachelor of science degree in 1974. He has the rating of a command pilot, having 3,900 flight hours with T-38s, F-15s and F-16s.

In an e-mail exchange with the Globe, Chandler talked about his career in the military, the mobilization for Afghanistan and the changes he has seen in the Air Force.

Chandler was serving as chief of staff for the allied forces in southern Europe when he was interviewed by the Globe in 1999. He played a key role in the conflict at Kosovo. At that time, he said his original intent was to spend only five years in the Air Force and then do something else.

* Q. What changed your mind?

A. I think there are points in any career, not just the military, where you should take a look at where you are and where you want to go in the future. Five years — the end of my academy obligation — was one of those points. By that time in my Air Force career, I had been given the opportunity to do so many things and had been challenged in so many ways, I never dreamed possible that I very much wanted to continue what I was doing at the time — flying.

I have been extremely fortunate since. The opportunities and challenges kept coming. And, I find myself still enjoying what I am doing almost 36 years since graduating from the academy.

Not only would I do it again, but I would highly recommend an Air Force career. The Air Force offers any motivated young man or woman as much responsibility as they are willing to take as quickly as they are willing to take it — whether for five years or 35 years.

* Q.Without divulging details, are you involved in the new push in Afghanistan? If so, what can you tell us about your role? What will be the challenge there?

A.Today, we have more than 7,000 airmen in Afghanistan. That number will grow to more than 10,000. The Air Force is fully committed to contributing to coalition efforts.  As you know, President Obama has directed that our forces flow “at the fastest possible pace.” In accordance with the President’s direction, the inherent speed and range of airpower will enable this accelerated pace.

In the short term, nearly all incoming U.S. personnel and equipment, including the Mine Resistant All Terrain Vehicles that protect our men and women from improvised explosive devices, the number one killer of our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen in theater, will be flown into Afghanistan via Air Force aircraft.

The Air Force also is increasing the number of airlift aircraft in theater by more than 50 percent and air refueling assets by more than 40 percent. Additionally, we’re increasing the number of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and aeromedical evacuation aircraft.

Finally, the Air Force will continue deploying Airmen in other roles we are trained to perform, searching for explosives, guarding detainees, driving convoys, building an Afghani Air Force and rebuilding infrastructure to name a few.

* Q.You have seen a good part of the world and watched how the nature of conflict has changed. How has the role of the Air Force evolved in response?

A. The Air Force has changed considerably since I came on active duty in 1974.  After Desert Storm concluded, the Air Force became a much more expeditionary force — no longer assigned to a Cold War basing structure. Since the early 1990s, we’ve proven we’re a very adaptive force. That transition continues today as we work as part of the larger joint team. In the air, we provide close air and other strike support, intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, aeromedical evacuation, aerial refueling, airlift and airdrop, among other missions.

Our missile and bomber force provides the bulk of the nation’s nuclear deterrence, our space assets provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, precision navigation and timing, and worldwide protected communications. For example, the GPS you use in your car or at home is provided by Air Force satellite capability.

In cyberspace, we’re protecting our Department of Defense computer networks. Finally, on the ground, we’re taking on a number of missions — everything from Airmen leading convoy operations to protecting forward operating bases, as well as being integrated with the U.S. Army to control airpower for ground commanders.   

As a specific example of our ability to adapt, we have greatly increased our use of unmanned aircraft, which are more properly named “remotely piloted vehicles.”  We have been able to marry these aircraft with modern sensors and weapons, and integrate them with existing satellite capabilities into a 24/7, worldwide intelligence network with strike capability. We’ve done this very rapidly, making it the basis of an invaluable, real time intelligence/attack system for our forces in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere in the world.   

*Q.Have you visited Joplin recently? When you think back on your time here, what do you remember most?

A.Sorry to say I haven’t been home recently. That said, my best regards to family and friends. Joplin was a great place to grow up and I would like to pass my thanks to all of you for your support of our airmen, some 40,000 of which are deployed around the world.



The new job

As Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. Howard Chandler presides over the Air Staff and serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Requirements Oversight Council and Deputy Advisory Working Group. He assists the Chief of Staff with organizing, training and equipping of 680,000 active-duty Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the United States and overseas.