McConnell bids Colonel Weiss farewell

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Abigail Klein
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  After more than a year as the 22nd Air Refueling Wing vice commander and almost two years at McConnell, Col. Bart Weiss will relinquish his position.

Colonel Weiss, who originally joined Team McConnell as the 22nd Operations Group commander, will continue his Air Force career where it all began-the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo., where he will be placed in charge of the preparatory school.

Before leaving McConnell, Colonel Weiss reflected on lessons learned while being stationed at McConnell.

"I definitely received a bigger sense of teamwork and an understanding that the Air Force is about performing many different jobs," he said. "I arrived here to be the 22nd OG commander and within six months, I was deployed as a [385th Air Expeditionary Group commander] at, Incirlik Air Base, Turkey,

"Once I returned from my deployment, my job changed significantly from being a group commander to really being the back-up vice wing commander," he said.

Though Colonel Weiss looks forward to returning to the academy, he remarked that he will also miss the relationships he made while a member of McConnell.

I will miss the people I worked with and the support we got from the community, he said. The community was certainly a big part of being stationed at McConnell.

In addition to leaving with memories of McConnell, Colonel Weiss hopes he in turn left something behind during his time here.

"I hope to leave behind a sense of the importance of leaders being able to empower their people," he said. "It's ok to let your people make decisions and take risks, even though you may not agree with them or they make mistakes--we can always recover from the mistakes."

Along with leaving behind a sense of what it means for commander's to inspire their people, Colonel Weiss expressed the importance of Airmen being prepared and taking pride in their service.

"Make the most of your opportunities in the Air Force, it's not just about coming in to do your job," he said. "You should also make sure to have fun in your job, because if you're not having fun, it's not worth it.

I came here as an operations group commander and I'm leaving as the vice wing commander," he said. "Be prepared for whatever the Air Force throws at you and take advantage of the opportunities because they don't come along too often."

Colonel Weiss will be succeeded by Col. Douglas Lamberth, who is coming from Yongsan Army Garrison, South Korea.