WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — There's a new commander leading the Air Force Reserve's Force Generation Center at Robins Air Force Base, and he is no stranger to Central Georgia.
Brig. Gen. Kelvin McElroy assumed command of the Force Generation Center Monday morning.
As he spoke, he reflected on the words his late mother would share with him and his siblings.
"She would look at us and say, 'Fly Robin Fly,'" McElroy said.
It's a saying they got by watching the Robins Report that the base produced. It was an ad aired weekly on 13WMAZ. That was on top of other base content that aired during the days of Frank Malloy and Tina Hicks.
"Warner Robins, WMAZ Channel 13 was the place in my imagination where it all started," he said.
McElroy grew up living in the Fort Hill neighborhood in Macon, just a few blocks from the station where he says he had little exposure to the world.
However, seeing men in uniform and the action on the front lines through his screen opened his eyes.
"It created that desire to go out and to dream," McElroy said, "to dream big."
He did just that. His career took him from the Fort Hill neighborhood and then to Fort Valley State University. Later, it would take him to Fort Bliss in Texas and then worldwide.
"Germany to Mississippi, to Delaware to Illinois," he said.
He saw a few more places before stopping back home in Central Georgia with family, back to the community that raised him.
"I want to be able to come back, and have an opportunity to give back through community service, through being an example," he said.
He says he wants to inspire the future generation and "share my experience that once you're exposed to something your life expands."
Plus, in his new role, he will help protect the nation along the way.
"He's in charge of organizing, training and equipping reserve personnel for their wartime task missions," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Pennington shared.
Pennington serves as deputy commander of the Air Force Reserve Command.
"To provide the freedom that we all treasure and that we all, many have sacrificed for," McElroy
He says his priorities are to create a foundation of readiness, people and culture.