From the Pentagon to the Mojave Desert — CE commander aims to improve life at Edwards

  • Published
  • By Giancarlo Casem
  • 412th Test Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  

The new 412th Civil Engineer Group commander, Col. Bradly Bucholz arrived at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in August 2025 with a straightforward goal: “make Edwards a better place to live and work.”

That plainspoken mission — shaped by Pentagon tours, command stints at Yokota Air Base, Japan, and Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, Joint Staff experience and more than a 3.5 years deployed — now drives a mix of big-picture deals and immediate fixes aimed at easing housing pain, restoring infrastructure, and keeping the base focused on its test mission.

A civil engineer by training who earned his commission after graduating from the Air Force Academy in Colorado and holds advanced degrees in civil engineering, and national security strategy from the National War College, Bucholz leads the 412th CEG and manages thousands of real property assets valued at more than $15 billion.

“The biggest takeaway from those assignments is learning how money and authorities work,” Bucholz said. “With that knowledge you know where the money comes from, who to ask, where surplus or emergency accounts exist, and which key players to leverage from prior assignments to get things done.”

The scale of the challenge is stark. The 412 CEG staffing is “only about 57% manned,” he warned.

“On a good day we might have nine equipment operators for hundreds of miles of roads; there are 500 miles of roads on this base, 250 paved. We’ve gone from roughly 1,000 personnel in the unit in the 1990s to about 383 now, with only 140–170 actually performing hands-on maintenance.”

That gap forces a lot of overtime and an increased need for contracted support. As the Edwards mission grows, and more employees and Airmen are needed, so will the need for adequate housing.

“If you want people focused on the mission, you have to give them something stable to go home to,” he said.

Housing has consumed much of his attention. Bucholz pushed into both long-term and stop-gap solutions.

“Safe, suitable off-base housing is getting harder to find,” he said. “Airmen aging out of dorms or arriving for assignments face long waits for base housing and sometimes end up in unacceptable conditions. That experience pushed me into prioritizing housing.”

Drawing on experience at Yokota and on the Joint Staff working enhanced-use leases (EULs), he’s pursuing perimeter development to catalyze an increase in housing.

“It’s the largest land Air Force base in the world by land area. It’s 308,000 acres,” he noted. “A developer could build about 1,000 units on a parcel near the west gate; single family, condo-style, townhomes with a community center, park, and commercial commerce. That’s going to bring multifold goodness: help Rosamond, grow the community, increase school funding, and expand services.”

In a wing that fosters innovation, Bucholz himself has adopted that spirit in tackling the unit’s challenges at Edwards.

Bucholz’s team in the 412 CEG are exploring tiny homes, converted recreation parcels and townhome concepts as cheaper alternatives to multifamily apartments. Townhomes are cheaper to construct than multifamily apartment buildings due to different codes and construction types, he said.

He links infrastructure and housing directly to mission readiness: Airmen shouldn’t be distracted by where they live and work; he believes they deserve functional workplaces and a safe, secure home so their focus stays on the mission and their families off duty.

He describes the base as “the Air Force’s weapons platform,” emphasizing his role in keeping its infrastructure and systems ready to support the test mission and enable rapid capability development.

Despite the heavy lift, Bucholz brings a grounded, community-first approach from EUL negotiations in conference rooms to coaching Little League on local diamonds. He and his wife, Erin, are raising three sons and have plugged into community life — Little League, Scouts, and weekend trips to Palmdale, Huntington Beach and the poppy fields.

Pragmatic urgency defines his tenure: “Try new things, use every authority and funding tool available, and do not accept ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it as the final answer.”

Whether pressing Congress-level authorities, negotiating with privatization partners, or walking base roads to check potholes, Bucholz is mounting a hands-on campaign to ensure Edwards is ready for the test mission and livable for the people who make it possible.