Leadership Del Rio visits Laughlin

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. James Ramirez
  • 47th Flying Training Wing Public Affaird
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Leadership Del Rio, a Del Rio Chamber of Commerce program designed to groom leaders from across the community, visited Laughlin Nov. 16.

According to Tony Hernandez, Leadership Del Rio coordinator, the program utilizes the experiences from Team XL members and Del Rio business and civic leaders to help build stronger leaders for Del Rio.

"This is our third year of conducting this effort, and it has been great to see it grow each year," said Hernandez. "Our first year, we had Air Force officers. The second we had both officers and enlisted, and this year we included civil servants for the first time."

Hernandez said Laughlin members' perspectives are vital for Del Rio to understand, and this program helps share those perspectives.

One Team XL participant, Lt. Col. Drew Morrison, 434th Flying Training Squadron director of operations, agreed that both the Leadership Del Rio seminars he attended and the base tour were great opportunities.

"The base needs cooperation from the city of Del Rio to complete our mission," said Morrison. "Their support is integral to our mission, so it's important for us to expose as many local leaders as possible to the base."

The tour of Laughlin included trips to aerospace physiology, security forces military working dog kennel, base recycling center, radar approach and control, air traffic control tower and the simulator building.

"We got to see how important the mission here at Laughlin is," said Hernandez. "It is amazing how much hard work goes into accomplishing this mission each day."

Part of the tour included lunch at Club XL with Col. Tom Murphy, 47th Flying Training Wing commander, and he echoed Morrison's words on the importance of efforts like Leadership Del Rio.

"It is all about growing together as a community, and this program helps us to do that," said Murphy.