Photo By Lt.Cmdr. Jim Remington | Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling Commander Navy Capt. Frank Mays observes a U.S. Air Force...... read more read more
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WASHINGTON - From an eye-opening start to the formulation of a vision for Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling’s (JBAB) future, Navy Capt. Frank Mays is fully entrenched in his job as commander of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) premier joint base in the National Capital Region.
“My goal is to have a D.C. street car serving the base and a base shuttle to service the population who will use the D.C. Street Car within two years, by early 2016,” said Mays. “A year later, I want to ensure that we have a charter school standing up right here at JBAB.”
Mays, who draws on uniformed experience that began with eight years in the U.S. Air Force before a transition to the U.S. Navy where he has served the past 23 1/2 years, has the same service connections as JBAB’s.
“I think I bring a different perspective of these services, both the Navy and the Air Force,” said Mays. “I have an Air Force background and I hope that, along with my Navy time, helps bring a deeper understanding for the supported and supporting entities on the base. One of my mandates is to preserve the history and heritage of both the Air Force and the Navy on JBAB. I take that to heart, and I will fulfill that duty.”
During his first few weeks of command, Mays toured the base, visited with his staff, the mission partners, and tenants. What he saw surprised him.
“I knew it was a joint base, but I didn’t expect such a diverse mission set. After a few tours around the base in the first few weeks, it became apparent to me that all five services are well represented from the Coast Guard all the way to the Army National Guard, but we also have many federal entities on the base,” Mays said. “We have everything covered. Walking in the door I didn’t have a grasp for how diverse it was. I’m just amazed at the team work and resourcefulness of our JBAB staff and our mission partners. We’ve really got quite a varied mission set.”
Mays today finds himself at the helm of one of 12 joint bases established from the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission’s (BRAC) decision to consolidate 26 separate entities across the DOD and in their place establish 11 joint bases and one joint region, Joint Region Marianas. At JBAB the Navy is the supporting entity while the Air Force is the supported.
Harmony and unity of purpose in the joint base structures depend in large part, on the personalities involved, according to Mays.
“It’s just like back in kindergarten; it’s how well you get along. [Air Force] Col. Kendall Peters [deputy commander of JBAB] and I work overtime to ensure we get along with one another, with all the mission partners and at the next level up, our bosses get along together too,” said Mays. “So far it has worked extremely well within the joint management oversight structure.”
Going into the job, Mays had a mentor, a former base commanding officer, who told Mays it took him approximately six months before he felt comfortable going before the press or any given entity or to be an advocate for and tout his base’s mission. Mays said that was pretty close to his experience except, he felt that way at the four or five month mark. As he navigated his way through these first six months, Mays said he followed the same management philosophy he built throughout his career, getting directly and intimately involved only where required.
“My method of management is: I don’t normally get into your business unless you give me a reason to get into your business. Early on, in a couple of occasions, that happened, so I did and I learned about certain aspects of the job earlier than I had planned,” said Mays. “I learned certain lines of business which I had never previously had to delve.”
Other than that, Mays said most of his first six months was deliberate work in which he was able to set a cadence for visits to all of the mission partners and getting immersion tours with his own staff. The deliberative nature of JBAB’s business is one of the differences he cited as a departure from his command at sea.
“This is a shore command. While we have a mission, it’s not tethered to a deployment schedule. That is different,” said Mays. “While in command of a sea duty unit, on any given day an issue or a problem may arise that would require immediate attention and concerted effort by those involved. That doesn’t occur here unless we have a situation arise like we did the other day with a water line break. Normally you can go about doing your business in a more deliberate fashion.”
Another strong contrast between his past sea command and current shore command experiences is the composition of his staff. Mays’ squadron was manned by Sailors. At sea, he said, those are the folks who demanded most of his attention, but here at JBAB with a staff of more than 800 civilians and only 25 active duty military, the opposite is true.
“The opposite being there is not a whole lot of demand on my time from the Sailors and the Airmen as there are few of them and they are more senior in rank, though I do like to visit them. The civilians are great and they’ve typically been doing their assigned job for many years.”
During this first six months Mays has assessed that one of the best things his base does very well is effective communication among the five services and the many federal entities present. This enables him and his staff to ensure, from a base operating support perspective, they are set up for success to perform their mission and the tenants have what they need from the base to perform their mission.
JBAB also provides some of the finest accommodations in all of DOD according to Mays. It has more than 1,000 family housing units and 800 single service member dorm rooms. Its Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) department is the largest in the Naval District Washington (NDW), and provides world class MWR facilities and functions for more than 17,000 DOD employees and dependents who work or live on the base.
“That said, to date, a Government Accountability Office report just recently released cited in some of their findings that Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling had its installation support functions 98 percent consolidated, which is highest among all joint bases,” Mays said. “So that is something for which we should be proud. While other joint bases have issues regarding proximity, we never really had that, so that’s helped us. We are the target to shoot for among the other joint bases with regard to consolidation and overall integration of our efforts.”
Mays further explained that of all the joint bases, JBAB is one of the only joint bases that has the base commander (supporting service) and the deputy commander (supported service) in the same office suite.
“That alone speaks volumes to how consolidated, integrated and in lockstep we are,” Mays said. “We often confide, and share stories and ensure we’re on the same page to make sure the mission of the joint base is paramount while at the same time helping to shepherd scarce resources in a fiscally austere environment.”
Mays credited JBAB’s successful integration at the base level and the echelons above (NDW and Air Force District Washington) with the more than 150 hiring actions currently ongoing.
While Mays enjoys talking about JBAB’s successes, he is not shy to discuss his assessment of what it could be doing better. That assessment is the basis of his vision for JBAB’s future which includes improved access to mass transit for all personnel living or with business on the base, and top quality education for children of JBAB residents.
“Even though we’re located in one of the largest metropolitan areas in America, we are somewhat isolated because of the geographic nature of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers; it is somewhat difficult to get here,” Mays said.
Mays’ staff is working plans for a charter school on base for the roughly 4,000 family members (there are approximately 1,000 family housing units with an average family of four living on base). Currently JBAB buses dependents to many schools in the District since there are no D.C. school buses.
“They don’t exist,” Mays said. “D.C. children take the Metro Bus. So we here on the biggest base in the District of Columbia, provide school busing via contracted services. We would have difficulty attracting folks to live on the base otherwise. Our population is pretty maxed out, and there’re two reasons why. It’s because we have 180 children who are home schooled on JBAB-it’s one of the best military home schooling programs in all of DOD. Secondly, we provide bus services for kids to go to schools.”
Mays said that the local elementary school is doing a great job supporting our community.
“We don’t want to encroach on that,” Mays said. “So my vision for a charter school on JBAB is that it starts at the 6th grade in the 2016-2017 school year. And as those kids graduate from those grades, we will add on a grade each year until we are filled out up to the twelfth grade level.”
In addition to providing a charter school to better meet the educational needs of base children, Mays’ vision also includes improving access to mass transportation to, from and even on the base.
“Mass transportationwise, we definitely have an issue,” said Mays. “After September 11, 2001, a lot of that went away due to security concerns. And while security concerns are as paramount now as they have ever been, there are capabilities we now possess within our law enforcement that can help ensure the security needs of the folks who work and live on the base are still met.”
Mays has directed his staff to consider, work and plan for several different solutions. One option in the works is for a D.C. Street Car, a trolley service that would begin providing service in calendar year 2016 between Anacostia Metro Station and JBAB’s Firth-Sterling Gate on the north end of the base.
“And at that point it is incumbent upon me to come up with a shuttle and shuttle schedule to get people to home or work as appropriate around the base,” said Mays. “That is pretty firm. D.C. Streetcar is pretty eager to make that happen and we are too. Because we’re both motivated it looks like it is on track to happen in early 2016.”
Mays is also looking at ways to get Metro Bus back on base, while at the same time, not compromising security.
“That’s my vision, while it’s a good thing for the convenience of residents and tenants who must commute to the base daily, we’re also trying to be good stewards of the environment and good partners with the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC),” Mays said. “The NCPC has a certain ratio of parking, it’s a goal that we’re trying to attain over time, and in an effort to get to that goal, mass transportation plays a big part. We also want to be good neighbors for everyone around us.”
One other option under consideration by multiple entities, to include JBAB, is a D.C. Water Taxi. Recently the Federal Transportation Administration provided a grant to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission which is the entity shepherding the project. The service would originate out of Alexandria, Virginia. Mays said his staff is looking at a prospective terminal somewhere on the Potomac side of JBAB.
“That would provide the ability for those who work and live in Northern Virginia, in particular Alexandria, the ability to just take a water taxi across and get to or from the base. So it’s just another means of reducing pollution, automobile traffic, and will help to improve our parking ratios.”
Besides schools and parking, Mays’ vision includes a number of other improvements, specifically in the area of MWR.
Based on the success of the first NDW Freedom Live concert event held Sept. 20, his MWR staff is looking to host another concert in May 2015. He also wants to bring the NFL’s and American Heart Association’s “Play 60” campaign which challenges kids to be active for 60 minutes each day in order to help reverse the trend of childhood obesity.
“We’re looking to bring the Play 60 here to our refurbished track and field,” Mays said. “We recently had some stadium lighting put up, along with the restrooms which were recently connected. We were going to have them here this year, but it was in between the JBAB sponsored Air Force Half-Marathon/Navy 5-miler and NDW’s Freedom Live concert. Our MWR personnel were maxed out, so I punted until next year.”
Mays also said his vision for the future includes examining the feasibility of building a recreational vehicle (RV) park. This is different from the current lot where owners can store an RV. He envisions an actual camping area on the south side of the base for which he believes there is quite a large demand here in the D.C. area.
Mays, with NDW’s assistance, is also looking to build a new Navy Gateway Inns and Suites lodging facility with 300 rooms projected on the base.
“My overall vision is to help the folks who live on the base with better access to educational opportunities and for everyone who lives and works here, better access to mass transit. Between what we put MWR-wise down at the Slip Inn during the summer months and into the Liberty Center - which is a state-of-the-art facility for residents of our unaccompanied housing - I want to ensure everyone is able to easily avail themselves of the MWR opportunities at JBAB, because even though we are in a city and metropolitan area, we’re still relatively isolated due to the geography that surrounds the base.”
| Date Taken: | 10.17.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2014 11:54 |
| Story ID: | 146311 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON, DC, US |
| Web Views: | 120 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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