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OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Kris Pierce, Chief of Public Affairs for the 55th Wing and Offutt Air Force Base

Hello OmahaNebraska.com, here with…

…Kris Pierce.  I’m the Chief of Public Affairs for the 55th Wing and Offutt Air Force Base.

How did you get here? And what did you do before?

I’ve been in the seat since May of this year. Prior to that, I was five years with US STRATCOM Public Affairs Office at STRATCOM. I was the Chief of Strategic Outreach and Command Information. And then from there, actually, in February, this position became available. But I was a Strat Fellow. [Strategic Leadership Fellows Program], is a program in cooperation with UNO. We did a research paper on the strategic questions that STRATCOM had when I was there. When I got done with that class in May, I came over here to the 55th Wing, and I’ve sort of been in the seat, and then officially was presented with the offer last week, so I’m now in the seat full time.

Congratulations!

Please tell us about the air show. We’re so excited to have it back.

Yeah, the air show is great. So of course, as you know, we haven’t had it in six years. We had the Flood of 2019, that canceled that show. And then we had COVID. And then, right when COVID was over, was about the time ..we finally got funding for a full runway replacement, which then meant that we wasn’t able to have an air show for those years.

So we’re really excited about it. Excited that we’ve got the Thunderbirds coming back to Omaha. So, it’s this Saturday and Sunday. The Air Force’s Thunderbirds are the premier demonstration [team]. We also have the United States Army parachute demonstration team, the Golden Knights, will be here. And then we have about, oh, I think, 16 to 20 different aerial demonstrations. And then we also have what’s called static displays. We have about 40 different aircraft that the public will be able to look at. There’s a couple to walk through. So, that’s really exciting this year.

This year we started a STEM program, so we’re doing a STEM tent. We’ve got some great partners with that to reach out to kids and young adults about the importance of STEM, how STEM is important, not only to the military, but also in all jobs that we have nowadays with how technology has advanced, engineering has advanced, mathematics, you know. So we are really starting to gear toward making sure that we provide that outreach to them. I think we have the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium as a partner for that, along with Metro Community College. STEMaha is another partner for that tent. So that’s going to be really exciting.

We also have a fun zone, a Kids Fun Zone, with bouncy houses and things like that for the kids.

I think it’s going to be a great time. I think there’s been a lot of anticipation for this show because we haven’t had it for so long, but we are just absolutely excited.

You can find more information at offuttairshow.com on that. We have all the performers and their profiles, all the static displays that we’ll have, and then we also have a huge and ever-growing FAQ program.

The other thing, I would encourage your readers to look at our parking program, because we have several off-base parking areas that will have bus shuttles from those parking areas, like, I think American Heroes Park, Bellevue West, and the Northrop Grumman parking lot, and we will have busses that will go from there and bring them to the air show. Part of that is because the flood and all the reconstruction that we’ve had has really taken about 5000 parking spaces that we’ve normally had for air shows-out. So that’s really limited to us.

But for the air show, I think another important message is for on-base parking. There’s only three categories that that we can do on base. It’s those with DoD IDs, anyone with a handicap placard, whether it be a hang tag or a license plate. And then then we had some premium seating that we sold as part of our fundraising to help with our force support services group. So those are the three that can park on base. Everyone else will have to park in one of the areas off base.

Thank you. Anything else you would like to add, or any other question?

The other thing I’d like to add is the 55th Wing and Offutt Air Force, Base is really starting to grow in its importance to national security. And we got a great message from General Wilsbach, the ACC [Air Combat Command]  Commander who visited the last two days. He is our higher headquarters command. The community should know how important Offutt is to national defense. Not only do we host US STRATCOM and the 55th Wing and Offutt Air Force Base supports them in many, many things, but we as a Wing are hugely important in national security. And I think that’s that should be a sense of pride for our community. Our community has … in all of DoD [Department of Defense], I think the surrounding community, the Bellevue, Omaha, La Vista,  Papillion area has-we are fortunate- probably the most supportive civic community groups that we see around the country.

Its support for this base, for the support of the service members here on this base, is just outpouring. It’s always, always, always, “How can we help?” Whether it be Rusty Hike, whether it be Senator Sanders, whether it be Governor Pillen, Senator Ricketts, Senator Fischer …, they’re always asking us, “How can we help? How can we as a community support Offutt in what you guys do to support your men and women in uniform.” I think that you will not find a better community support structure in across this country than you do here at Offutt.

Thank you so much. We found it very supportive here as well… we decided this was home.

That happens a lot. I think the state legislature has really been a huge advocate- a few years back when they did, they passed, I can’t remember the bill, but just not tax military retirement.

The Nebraska Veterans Coalition with Dean and Ron…

I know Ron, personally. I’ve known Ron for several years. Many veterans who come to Offutt and whatever, whether it be STRATCOM 55th Wing, between the 557th Weather Wing say, “We love this community.” You know the old phrase,” It’s easy to get on it, but it’s hard to get off it/Offutt.”

But it was the economic environment that wasn’t always friendly. And I think the state legislature, and I think starting with Governor Ricketts and Governor Heineman saw that and really pushed for, you know, military retirement shouldn’t be taxed by Nebraska, and that has really been a very positive effect- that change- to our military community who’s going to retire and settle here. So, I think the state is doing the right things to make this a more veteran retiree friendly community.

Thank you.

No, thank you.