Interview with Ron Sites

Soleil Sykes: My name is Soleil Sykes and today is September 6th, 2017 and I am speaking with Ron Sites and we have started talking about Luke Forward and Fighter Country Partnership and the work that they are doing. So, if you would mind stating your name and position we can get started. 

Ron Sites: Ron Sites. I'm the president and the executive director of Fighter Country Partnership and Fighter Country Foundation. 

SS: Awesome, thank you so much. My first question if we can go back a little bit was about how you came to work here. 

RS: Well, that's a personal question that requires a few minutes to answer because it's, it's like three separate career paths. So I was  golf professional. Went to 00:01:00college, golf scholarship, and wanted to stay in the golf business and went into the golf business and was a teaching professional. Moved to Arizona in '97 and was a teaching pro and a business golf professional for about ten years. And during that time I wanted to have a family and get  married and the golf industry causes you to work holidays, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, never a day off. So, I went into the financial services sector, worked for Merrill Lynch. I had the joke saying if you want to create a friend for life teach em how to play golf they like you so much they'll give you their money. So I went to work at Merrill Lynch. And so while I was at Merrill Lynch for four years, and doing incredibly well and successful I just, I didn't like the business, the business inherently is a conflict of interest. It's nobody's fault, but I make money when people lose money. I don't like that. Didn't fit 00:02:00well. So, I was volunteering my time at a local YMCA and got involved with the board and got involved with senior leadership and next thing you know I became an executive director of one of their flagship branches at ten thousand members almost 200 staff at full time employment with an olympic sized pool, massive facility, awesome event, Three miles from a military installation. And as we continued to do things to support these families that I would see but not really know who they are i got more involved with Luke Air Force Base and an honorary program that they have. It's a Department of Defense public awareness program. And while I was a part of the honorary commander program our YMCA branch also applied for and received the ability to support families through a Department of Defense grant and I couldn't get military families to sign up for this free 00:03:00platform. And it was just,,,it drove me...are you kidding me? This is not to good to be true, this is what we have for you and in some instances it was up to ten thousand dollars worth of programs and services. Free ballet lessons, swim lessons, soccer, basketball, full on memberships, child care. I mean, literally there was one family where it was ten thousand dollars worth of services. But when you are asking a military person to sign a document and you are a civilian you know I learned real quickly the difference between the two cultures. And not that that is a bad thing, they're just different. So what did I do? I hired a military spouse. And in about six months we had eleven hundred families signed up to take advantage of these resources that we had for these families and that got me more involved with Luke Air Force Base and then I, I quickly learned that just because I see fence, plane, and pilot, and you assume everything is fine 00:04:00inside a government installation I learned real quickly through this honorary commander program that it's not. There's a lot of challenges that the general public's not aware of because of the integrity and the pride that the military has. So, once I became kind of an insider and I found unique ways to support the military I just got more involved. And then my predecessor moved on to another career and this position opened up and there you go. That was seven years ago. 

SS: Seven years ago, so that's ...

RS: Almost seven years ago. I made my first day of employment September 11th. 

SS: 2010 and Luke Forward started in 2009?

RS: 2009, but grassroots probably more 2007, 2008.

SS: Okay, can you 00:05:00talk a little more about how you got involved in Luke Forward and how that sort of came about?

RS: So I, I, I walked into Luke Forward pretty much in the middle of the of the big push.

SS: Okay.

RS: So I understand the majority of the history but I might not have all the facts. If you have the chance to discuss it with Rusty Mitchell with Luke Air Force Base and the Community Initiatives Team he can definitely give you full background. 

SS: Okay.

RS: But the Luke Forward platform was a grassroots effort to get the community collectively together to support the bedding down of the F-35 mission at Luke Air Force Base. And what this community has been a part of for two decades now is extreme strong symbiotic relationship between the installation and the civilian community outside the fence. Mainly because of an office that was created here at Luke called the Community Initiatives Team. General Breedlove at the time identified that if Luke was going to stay here, there were some things that needed to be done to protect the base from encroachment. So they created an office to be that single conduit from the wing commander to the fourteen municipalities that surround and are affected by the training mission at Luke. 00:07:00So, you think about that. You've got fourteen mayors. Public math times six council members that's a lot of elected officials that like to be informed and know what's going on so Rusty Mitchell and that Community Initiatives Team that's their role. And he never turns over. He's a government service civilian employee and he's that continuity piece that you're not going to get from a uniform wearer. Your uniform wearer is going to be here on a two year stint when they get here they're drinking from the fire hose. And when they're getting ready to leave they're worried about the next assignment, so it's, it's a much better fit for that individual to be that continuity piece to be a civilian employee. So that's what Luke created twenty years ago. Or fourteen year ago, I don't know. Rusty's an old guy, you'll figure it out when you talk to him. But 00:08:00what that created was constant communication, constant education, constant awareness about how Luke is doing, are there any concerns or threats that are affecting its training mission and that type of communication between the two parties kept everyone on the same sheet of music. So when we heard that the F-16 will eventually go away and there's an opportunity to get the F-35, the community said, "AH! Luke cannot go away. We completely understand the economic impact of this installation." Last time it was measured it was 2.17 billion. I don't know what the number is know but it's measured in billions. That's enough to know it's incredibly important to our community from an economic sustainment stand point. So we don't want this installation to go away so the Luke Forward platform was the community's voice to the Air Force saying how much we love Luke 00:09:00and how much we want that new aircraft to come here. And it wasn't even close. From the data that was provided we actually created a job for somebody in the Air Force because they have to track each individual electronic card of support. And so we completed these templated electronic support cards for the F-35 mission to be bed down at Luke Air Force Base. And I think something like nine or ten thousands of these things got filled out and sent to the Department of the Air Force. They had to hire somebody to individual track each one. I think the next closest installation that was part of that public scope and had a chance to get the F-35 mission, might have been five hundred. Maybe. And that's probably being generous. So that was the Luke Forward campaign. It was elected officials, business leaders, Governor Brewer, all on the same sheet of music with a very loud voice to the Department of the Air Force saying, "We love you. 00:10:00Don't leave." 

SS: Was it mostly, what, what kind of advocacy, like what shape did that advocacy take, was it those electronic cards, was it meetings, was it briefings, was it lobbying.

RS: Yes, yes, yes and yes. I mean you would have when the, when the Luke Forward campaign launched in you know you would, you'd have Governor Brewer on TV and all the news stations there at a massive press release with the fourteen mayors standing behind her alongside Fighter Country Partnership and officially launching the Luke Forward campaign. So it had local and national press and that definitely caught the eyes of the Air Force. And then you would have town halls and and just just by the nature of the process, or the Environmental Impact Statement there's public hearings. So there's five 00:11:00mandatory public hearings and, I mean, these things were four hundred and five hundred people coming to some of them when maybe other installations might have twenty and and in a lot of those cases half the people there had a negative comment to make. There was, in a group of four or five hundred people there might have been maybe one or two negative comments and it was about concerns with noise. And pretty much the messaging that we provided was, "Listen, if the F-16 doesn't bother you, the F-35s not going to bother you." It's, it's a different pitch but from a noise standpoint, it's pretty much the same unless the aircraft's in afterburner but the base doesn't put the aircraft very much so don't worry about it. So, I think it's a cleaner noise. So anyway that and that was kind of the platforms that were utilized. Media, I mean, everything.

SS: Was it, you mentioned a lot about the business community and elected officials, was there grassroots organizing that happened or was it mostly on those higher institutional levels?

RS: So that's the role that Fighter Country Partnership played. Is, is, as a non-profit 501(c)3 and a 501(c)4. I kind of, I, what I say is we do what the base is not allowed to do and we say what the base is not allowed to say. And we can also operate in a fashion that is a lot easier than maybe municipalities can because of some of the bureaucracy that they have to go through. I mean, I used to think bureaucracy was a bad word, it's not, it's just, it exists because of how the military has to operate, how municipalities have to operate. Well, we have a little more flexibility in how we can operate. So our organization controlled all of the back end communication. Our IT 00:13:00department created the Luke Forward platform electronically, facilitated all of the electronic cards of support. That whole mechanism was put together by us. With the guidance of working with our elected officials to make sure you know verbage and and terminology was correct and proper in how it wanted to be positioned so we worked very closely with our cities. And that was the vehicle to facilitate the grassroots piece. The, we had fourteen thousand registered supporters on our website and we had like I said, almost nine thousand electronic support card, technically there were thirteen, but I think three or four thousand were duplicates, so you know, that's a no no. You can't do that. So, there were about, I think, ninety three hundred electronic cards of support for the F-35 platform. 

SS: Awesome. And you mentioned this already a little and I wondering if you could go into greater detail about the messaging and the ideas that you proposed and that you used to encourage political support, business support, and community support.

RS: So first and foremost was economic impact. Always headed up all of the messaging because, you know, when the West Valley gets to have a Super Bowl here we love it. But, what is that, once every seven years, once every twelve years? You know and and we always brag that that generates five hundred million dollars of economic impact, which is fantastic. Well, Luke generates four and a half Super Bowls every year. So it's a 2.17 billion and then some like I said, measured in billions. So the economic impact 00:15:00of the installation is massive. Then the other byproduct of that is well we, we yes the economic impact is great we have eight thousand military members of high integrity living in our communities. And I mean those are families you want living within your community. You know, Air Force, Navy, Marines, 944th Fighter Wing. Those are patriotic Americans you know supporting global freedom and justice. That's who you want living as your neighbor. So, those were pretty much the two main talking points was economic impact and the fact that we have amazing military members living within our community and we like that. There are a lot of other talking points too about what the, the aircraft is going to be for our national defense and global defense for that matter. And the importance of that and having it be here at Luke Air Force Base with the Barry M. Goldwater 00:16:00range, which allows for three hundred and thirty days of sunshine flying over deserts and familiar terrain that you might see down range in harm's way. So it's a great training location...a lot of those key talking points too.

SS: Do you think with using the economic as the first and the primary, was there a reason that you chose to, to lead with that?

RS: Well, we have an example of the opposite end of the spectrum from about thirty years ago. Prior to me getting here, but there was an Air Force base called Williams Air Force Base on the other side of town which was also a fighter pilot training base. Long standing history in the Air Force. And our community didn't have it's radar up and nobody was paying attention and boom, a BRAC hit. Next thing you know 00:17:00"Willy," as the community calls it, is closing. And I mean months. Next thing you know its a ghost town. At that point in time thirty years ago or however long it was three, nine hundred million dollars of economic impact gone. And they're still trying to recoup that. It's still a shadow of what it used to be from an economic standpoint as far as that East Valley is concerned. So when our Maricopa County and the state of Arizona, when we saw that happen in the East Valley, we cannot let that happen out in the West Valley. So, you know, if you really want to make the community understand the importance of an installation....What's your community going to look like without it? It's going to be bad. So, yeah, that was the main reason why we focused on economic impact.

SS: Do you find that it's a, was it a persuasive argument? I mean, would people say, "Oh, the base is never going to close. It's going to be fine, we don't need to worry about it? Or did people really see that if the base disappeared, the communities would lose two billion dollars? 

RS: Yeah, I've learned that you know when you are talking about items that can be subjective there can a lot of opinions. You can't argue with numbers. So, I would say, yes, it was persuasive because it's, it's tangible and it's measured and it's there and the conversations I would have would just be eyebrow raising cause number one the community might not have realized the value of the installation and you hate to put a military installation and rank it just on value because you want the community to see it as what its purpose is in securing freedom and justice, 00:19:00as I've said earlier. I mean, that's what's really important, but, again, we can debate all we want about war and all those things. Well you can't debate about economic impact. So, we'll continue and use those talking points about the national defense and the importance that the base provides and we'll talk about that stuff causes it's important, but at the end of the day, if the base was to leave, you would see businesses crumble and go away. And the negative impact it would have would be detrimental for decades. 

SS: Awesome, thank you. You have focused a lot on sort of the talking points and the benefits of the base, were 00:20:00there any challenges that Luke Forward had, any opposition that they had to combat during the, during the advocacy process?

RS: So, as, as we talked earlier, before recording, we were talking about some of the other installations across the country and I mentioned how you had up in Spokane Fairchild and I believe they have air refueling tankers up there and sometimes some elected officials might not be paying attention to things that are happening close to the installation and next thing you know, some construction is happening over flight corridors, which could negatively impact that mission. So again, what Luke did decades ago, after Williams closed, they understood how encroachment 00:21:00could negatively impact the flying mission and the training mission of Luke Air Force Base. So they educated the community and created that awareness so that in case municipalities weren't on the same sheet of music, they can almost police each other. And it did happen. The city of El Mirage got a little sideways and was suing the Department of the Air Force for I believe five hundred million dollars because they said the flying mission at Luke was negatively impacting their property values. Well, Luke's been here since 1941, there's legislation that actually protects the base and all of the municipalities have together been together supporting Luke and its flying mission. So when El Mirage got a little bit sideways Luke can't and won't do anything about that cause they're not allowed to, their job is to train fighter pilots. So, who needs to police the other municipalities are fellow municipalities and that's what happened. The other municipalities pretty much said "What are you doing? That's not smart." And it ended up being political suicide. I mean, Mayor Mook, current mayor ran 00:22:00against the, that mayor at that time and I think won in a landslide and it caused the departure of the current city manager, and, and that's kind of a testament to the support that Luke Air Force Base has. Literally a municipality got a little sideways and next thing you know you have a new mayor, new council, new city manager, to say, "Uh no, don't worry, we firmly support Luke Air Force Base. We firmly support the F-35." To the point now were El Mirage literally has F-35s on all of their company vehicles. So, yes, that's, that's, that's a perfect example as to what happened when someone tried to get a little sideways. 

SS: What do you think, I mean where did that, where did El Mirage's opposition to Luke Air Force Base come from? You know, was it just a sudden 00:23:00political idea, was it a dream that someone had, or was it grounded in some sort of concern that had economic value?

RS: I'm not sure where it came from. I mean if, if they were suing the Air Force on, on land values inside of the sixty-five line which is protected by legislature time. I guess it was probably some landowners who were, were speaking to elected officials, and, and municipal leadership and you know they, they went one way and that way got advised that was not in a smart direction and it got corrected. 

SS: Was Luke Forward 00:24:00involved in sort of that, that course correction with El Mirage at all? 

RS: We weren't. Again, apolitical, single mission, single focus. We support the F-35 mission and the continued training of fighter pilots at Luke Air Force Base. So that was a great thing is, is we don't get in the middle of the political battles. That's what elected officials are for. You know, I, I used to get up and thank military members for their service. Well, when I speak in public now, I thank elected officials for their service. Because, what I've seen them have to go through and the oppositions that they have to fight sometimes. It's a lot of work and that's a service that they are providing too, so I thank them for their service and they police themselves. The municipalities police themselves. Very cohesive unit that lives out here in the West Valley. Between those 00:25:00fourteen cities and they all together support this military installation. 

SS: Awesome, thank you. The F-35 did eventually come to Luke through the success of Luke Forward I guess. Can you talk a little about why you think Luke Forward was successful, why the political process worked to bring the F-35 here.

RS: Well, it helps that Luke's been here since 1941. So, Luke was here before anything else was here, minus Litchfield Park and some other small, but anyway. Luke was the only thing out here for the most part. So the history and the tradition of the base exists and so as the community grew around it over the decades, that 00:26:00relationship's been strong. So, I, I think because Luke leadership had enough foresight to understand the importance of being here and training fighter pilots here. They're the reason the F-35's here because they got the community involved way ahead of schedule to keep everybody on the same sheet of music. So while I would love to sit here and say the Luke Forward platform bed down the F-35 mission at Luke: No. Was it a very important piece and was it something that we needed to do, yes, of course it was but I still also firmly believe that we ultimately would have got the F-35 mission just because of the relationship that already existed. I mean these communities and the way Luke has been for decades as I've said, being redundant, it's, it's been incredibly strong. So, we just put together an awesome insurance policy. 

SS: I want to go back to what, 00:27:00something you mentioned earlier about culture and how military culture is different from civilian culture and that seems to be in a little bit of tension perhaps with what you were saying about how the military, the base and the civilian community are really, really close and on the same sheet of music. And I was wondering if you could talk first of all about what the differences are that you see and then talk about maybe how those differences are or are not present in the West Valley.

RS: So, I'll, I'll remove the West Valley from that conversation and maybe talk about other installations across the country and none with specifics, but just from what I've seen is other installations across the country don't engage with the community the way that Luke does. So what Luke 00:28:00does is they have an honorary commander program where they identify, ah, individuals of influence, business leaders, not elected officials and not retired military, but big business, ah, municipal staff, like city managers, fire chiefs, individuals like that and they put them through what's called an honorary commander program. It's a two year program. And there's thirty squadron at Luke Air Force base. You know, seven fighter squadrons, a maintenance group, a maintenance squadron, a medical group, all the way down to a dental squadron, so you have these thirty squadrons. And so what Luke does, they put two civilians to each commander. And during the two year term the whole purpose of that program, or at least the main purpose of that program, is simply to reciprocate cultures. And so, when you mentioned the word tensions I would say that's probably what exists in other installations in other communities but 00:29:00because Luke has been operating a fantastic honorary commander program for so long, they've gotten individuals of influence and little people like me to go through that honorary commander program to educate them about the culture and the traditions of the military and while they're different, they are fantastic and amazing and they're privileged to be a part of. So, and then we get to do the same thing to the military members. You look at a military, you know majority of our enlisted force is straight out of high school at eighteen years old. So they haven't been in the civilian workforce. So, those cultures are different. So, brining the civilian culture inside the fence and preemptively educating first about their culture eliminates those tensions 'cause now you have, over the last twenty year of an honorary commander program, you have this grassroots of individuals of influence who understand the culture of the military, can share it with their friends and family, and now the fingers of that communication spreads to the point where, it's, it's a relationship like no other installation has in the country I would say. I'm a little biased with that comment, but I've been on other installations and while they have great 00:30:00relationships with their community, which is awesome, it's nothing like ours. 

SS: Can you, can you maybe describe a little bit more what an example of maybe something about the military culture that you learned going through the program that you think helped you understand Luke Air Force and its role in the community?

RS: So, oy that's a great question to ask a lot of Americans. What kind of tradition exists in the United States and you're going to get a different answer from everybody unless it's a military person. You're going to 00:31:00get pretty much the very consistent answer. What I saw is when I got involved in the, in the, in the honorary commander program was, was the, the existence of culture and tradition. Ah, annual awards that took place every year. Ah, morale and family programs, Ah, Air Force balls. Air shows. Ah, change of commands. I mean if you've never been to a change of command, I mean it's impactful. Ah, it's, those kind of events that happen every year, systematically, so that culture and tradition is literally embedded into those military members. So, when a civilian comes in and becomes a part of it, they, they feel incredibly privileged. At least they better. [laughs]

SS: This seems very important to you, you look very involved.... 

RS: Well. it just, it, um. We're lucky. We're lucky here. 

SS: Is there anything else you would like to add?

RS: Ah, I don't know. Ask some more questions.

SS: Um, actually I do have a question about, you talked about Luke and it's the Air Force, the base's efforts to provide awareness and outreach to the community. Um, what do you think, why, why did Luke decide to do that? Why here and not at Fairchild or elsewhere in the country?

RS: So, this would just be my best educated guess 'cause I've only been here for seven years, ah, nine years if you count those two years in the honorary commander program. My best, educated guess would be again going back to ah General Breedlove at the time, I don't know how long ago that was, fourteen, sixteen years ago, identifying the growth, I mean, for the longest time Phoenix was one of the fastest growing cities in the country. And then Maricopa County was one of the fastest growing counties in the country. So it was coming. Ah, and the tradition, again, going back to that tradition, the tradition of what Luke Air Force Base is means a lot to the Air Force. So they didn't want it to go anywhere. Ah, they saw what happened at Williams, so they had the, the foreshadowing to know that, well, we better do something about it on our end, on that, that's, that's what made it different compared to what other installations were doing. They were proactive, which a lot of the times doesn't happen in the military from a installation logistical standpoint. For military operations, heck yeah. There's probably nobody more proactive than, than the Air Force, or the Navy, or the Marines are. I always joke that the Air Force can move its entire self in forty-eight hours, which is an amazing feat and then there's a lot of things that, ah, maybe they're not as good at, but in this, and that, and that's where a lot of installations have made the cha-, the mistake of not being proactive in protecting their mission. Luke was. And, and they were way out in front of it. And it's a good thing too 'cause if they weren't, you'd have a housing development right outside the fence line and that would negatively impact the flying mission to the point where the Department of the Air Force might say, "You know what, we've got to go fly somewhere else."

SS: Awesome. Do you have anything else?

RS: Ah, I don't think so.

SS: Alright, thank you so much.

RS: You're welcome.