The 128th Air Refueling Wing on Wednesday offered an inside look at its facility and aircraft amid a push for a new KC-46A Pegasus tanker to be housed in Milwaukee.
The 128th ARW, a unit of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, partnered with Vistage Worldwide to host a leadership event at its facility on the east side of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. The facility houses refueling aircraft utilized by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and NATO.
This is the first time the 128th ARW has hosted a Vistage leadership event at its facility.
The 128th ARW has about 900 airmen and spans about 99 acres. On site, there are 30 building structures, including three aircraft hangars, an accredited site station and a $30 million petroleum oils and lubricants facility that is under construction, Master Sergeant Kellen Kroening said.
Since the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s establishment in 1947, the 128th ARW has provided aid during natural disasters, the Korean War and conflict in the Middle East, according to its website.
Leaders from Milwaukee-area businesses such as JCP Construction, Hatco, Galactic and more participated in the leadership event at the 128th ARW. The event allowed them to connect with military personnel, as well as tour the facility and refueling aircraft. The participants also heard a presentation about “emotionally intelligent leadership” from Heather Anderson, founder and owner of the Vermont-based Leading Challenges LLC.
As part of Wednesday’s event, Col. Charles Merkel, commanding officer for the 128th Air Refueling Wing, spoke to the group about the importance of intuition in leadership. Merkel offered advice and spoke about his personal experiences of leading during crises and making “time critical decisions.”
Merkel referenced how his friend, a military pilot, died when his plane crashed in a rural area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula on Dec. 8, 2020. He said U.S. Air Force regulations require a coroner to declare an individual deceased before a fatality can be announced.
"We were bleeding into the weekend, and the coroner still hadn't been on site," Merkel said, and added that the coroner was not going to be able to get there until that Monday.
He said they ultimately had the data needed to declare the pilot's death without a coroner present. This was important to not "have the family dangling out there wondering what's going on," Merkel said of his decision to move the process ahead without the coroner's immediate involvement.
“We are happy to host and compare notes,” Merkel told BizTimes. “I think it’s great to have business and military trade ideas, because I think there’s a lot of overlap there, and we can learn from each other.”
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Push for the KC-46A Pegasus
WISN-TV Channel 12, a media partner of BizTimes Milwaukee, recently reported that the Wisconsin House Delegation has pushed for a new KC-46A Pegasus tanker to be housed at the 128th ARW in Milwaukee. There are 15 Air National Guard Wings and Air Force bases around the country vying for this plane.
Right now, the ARW is waiting for the National Guard Bureau to narrow this list to five locations, Kroening said.
“They’re going to narrow it down to the top five, we think, by the end of this fiscal year,” Merkel said. “So the end of September. That is what we’re hearing, I don’t know that that’s necessarily going to be the case. And then in about a year from now, they’ll select the top one out of that.”
The 128th ARW currently has 10 KC-135 Stratotankers for “aerial refueling, aeromedical evacuation, and airlift and cargo forces,” according to the Wisconsin National Guard website. The KC-46 would replace the aging KC-135 Stratotankers, which were made between 1956 and 1965.
The 128th ARW has also launched a fundraising campaign to help promote the 128th ARW and the effort to bring the KC-46 to Milwaukee.
Earlier this year, the 128th ARW joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard and the State of Wisconsin to kick off construction of the new fuel facility at General Mitchell Airfield in Milwaukee.
“Investment in the fueling infrastructure (at General Mitchell Airfield) is essential for us to maintain the proper amount of deterrence of any potential aggression and establish this wing as an ideal choice for the KC-46A Pegasus,” said Brig. Gen. David May, a former 128th ARW commander, in a news release.
