Colonel's focus: teamwork, Edwards' role in AF mission

  • Published
  • By Christopher Ball
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
He's back, and this time he's in charge.

Col. Arnie Bunch stepped in as commander of the 412th Test Wing on Feb. 2, but Colonel Bunch is no stranger to Edwards, having spent nearly one-third of his Air Force career here.

"Of my 21-and-a-half years, I spent seven of them at Edwards," Colonel Bunch said.

His first tour here was as a student at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, July 1990 to June 1991.

"I enjoyed that aspect of it," he said. "Then (July 1991 to June 1995), I did a stint in test ops, and eventually moved into the B-2 combined test force where I did a variety of things. It was a unique time going through the B2 development process, kind of my grass roots test background."

His second tour at Edwards was as the 419th Flight Test Squadron commander and the Combined Test Force director at South Base, June 2000 to July 2002.

Colonel Bunch said his real foundation as commander began during his childhood.

"What got me started, what probably gave me a good work ethic was my mother and my father," he said. "Growing up with two working parents in a small town in East Tennessee -- often times my father was working two jobs trying to make ends meet and to provide us with a better opportunity -- that's kind of the foundation of how I came to be who I am today," he said.

Colonel Bunch began his Air Force career at the Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.

"I went to the Air Force academy, honestly, not as an officer looking to fly, or with a strong call to serve my country," he said. "I went as a way to keep my mom and dad from having to pay for college; point-blank honest.

"When I got there I loved what it meant. Seeing the flag and knowing what I was serving for -- I decided to try to go into flying, and my career has followed after that."

Colonel Bunch said another key event in that process of 'growing up' was his wife.

"I met my wife Caroline -- we went to high school together and started dating then -- and we got married coming out of the Academy. It'll be 22 years in June of this year," he said.

Now, as the 412th TW commander, Colonel Bunch has many good things to say about his return to Edwards.

"Thrilled, excited, elated, ecstatic; there are about any number of words I'd use for my coming back and being given this opportunity," he said.

As excited as he may be about being the commander, he said he has two things he wants to focus on immediately -- teamwork and the role Edwards plays in the Air Force mission.

"Team will be stressed consistently," Colonel Bunch said. "I know I'm inheriting a very strong team, and I'm going to keep the team going the way it's going -- I'm big on teams."

The colonel said he believes teamwork is critical to Edwards' mission success.

"That includes going beyond test," he said. "We have to work with the (95th) Air Base Wing and everybody else who's part of that team or we don't make the Air Force Flight Test Center successful."

The commander's other focus is reminding and reiterating to everyone what a critical role they play in getting weapons systems out in the field to accomplish the Air Force mission.

"Today the men and women on the battlefield have a unique advantage -- a distinct technological advantage -- over the enemies we are fighting," he said.

"A lot of that is because of the dedicated effort of the men and women of this organization from years back. We do our wartime mission every day ... we need to understand the criticality of what we do."

Colonel Bunch reiterated teamwork and people, and talked about the uniqueness of Edwards.

"It's a unique team environment with our industry partners, our contractors, our government civilians and our military," he said. "Almost anything is achievable if we work together.

"The people are the strongest asset we've got," Colonel Bunch said. "I'm happy to be here, working with these people who are dedicated and committed to serving and making sure the systems we get out there are effective and meet the warfighter's needs."