ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. — Colonel Chris Dunlap knows the E-8C jet like the back of his hand. He's been flying with the JSTARS for more than two decades.
"It was exciting for me because I knew it was a new mission. I knew it was an important mission for the future."
When the 116th Air Control Wing took over the JSTARS mission in the early 2000s, he was there.
"We've done a lot of work for the United States overseas, and I got to experience almost all of it at different levels of my career."
Now, he has thousands of flight hours and has served in several missions like Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and New Dawn.
"My longest sortie on this particular aircraft was about 19 hours."
Last October, he took over as Commander of the 116th.
"The mission of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mixed with command and control has really been my life while in the military," he says.
Now, he's leading the JSTARS through its final chapter.
"I think as the last one [jet] departs and it flies off, and we see those old engines smoking like they normally do, that might be a little rough."
Like any good leader, though, he chooses to look at the silver lining.
"I think Air Force leadership has seen that we've got outstanding proven results from the past, and based on our experiences, they want to use us for many years into the future.
So I think now that we all understand that, we're in a really good space, and we're excited for the future."
That future is coming quickly, and Col. Dunlap will be there for that, too.
"As the last JSTAR flies away, the pace at which we start training our folks to prepare them to stand up these new missions will start to increase drastically."
Moving forward, the 116th will now have two primary missions at Robins. Their primary role will be leading the Advanced Battle Management System Family of Systems. Col. Dunlap says during the new mission, they'll take a lot from what the JSTARS did in the air and do it from a central hub on the ground using new technologies.
REMEMBERING THE JSTARS
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