New commander shares leadership principles with Warriors of the North Published July 14, 2015 By Staff Sgt. Susan L. Davis 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Col. Rodney Lewis, 319th Air Base Wing commander, has only been at the helm officially since July 1, 2015, but he already has a vision for the Warriors of the North going forward. Lewis was born and raised in Oklahoma City, but spent his summers in a farming community he described as similar to Grand Forks. He was the youngest of three boys in his family, and a fourth-generation Oklahoman. His family traded the small southeastern town of Idabel for a home three-and-a-half hours west in Oklahoma City, situated near Tinker Air Force Base. That's where his fascination with flying began, he said. "As a young kid, I'd go out and watch the sky and I would see airplanes flying, and I didn't know anything about the Air Force then," he said. "My parents didn't serve, but I'd go outside and see big airplanes and little airplanes, and I always wondered who was flying them, and did they look like me?" Lewis explained that his family didn't have much discretionary income when he was growing up, so when a door-to-door salesman selling encyclopedias paid them a visit one day when he was about 9 years old, it was enough to call a family meeting to discuss the prospect. "My parents decided after this family meeting that we were going to buy these encyclopedias since my brothers and I were at the age where we were all doing reports in school, and this was pre-internet of course," he chuckled. With the encyclopedias came a small set of science and technology books containing numerous activities and experiments--all of which Lewis completed. "As a 9-year-old, those books were my haven," he said. "Those books talked about flying, and rockets, and it was all just really fascinating to me." His culminating experiment was trying to build an airplane out of the family woodpile using his dad's tools. Of course the airplane never flew, but his imagination soared. Lewis' love for aviation remained strong as he became older, but even after tragically losing his mother when he was 13, his dreams of flying would not be deterred. He recalled that he had never even been on an airplane until he was 18 years old and on his way to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. After graduating the Air Force Academy, he returned to Oklahoma for pilot training at Vance Air Force Base about 65 miles north of Oklahoma City, where his father had the honor of pinning on his wings. "He congratulated me, said all of those fatherly things, and then he whispered to me, 'You never put my tools back,'" he laughed. "Now as a dad with a teenage son of my own, I know exactly what he was talking about." Lewis explained that he and his wife Mechelle were high school sweethearts who married in 1993 and began their Air Force adventure together at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. They now have two children: Trace, 16, and Madison, 15. "Every assignment that I've ever had has been an experience," he said. "Once I got to Edwards, and I learned the mission, and I met the people and I saw just how unique this remote base was, it was one of the best assignments to start my career that I could've ever asked for." Lewis said his philosophy is that assignments are interconnected with the seasons of a person's life. "I learned so much in that time about how the Air Force operated, I learned about myself, I started galvanizing some of my founding traits and principles that I bring forward, and I had an opportunity to concentrate on my family and friends, I furthered my education, I was able to do my job and also take courses at the University of Southern California on base and on campus to get my master's degree. It just taught me to focus on my job, focus on my family and focus on my future." He touched on a handful of previous assignments and how each had helped shape him in a critical way as a family man, leader, and Airman, but not even the prospect of a harsh northern winter could wither Lewis' excitement and enthusiasm for an assignment at Grand Forks Air Force Base. "My first impression of Grand Forks was that it reminded me of home," he said. "From an Air Force perspective, I've known some of the people who have come here before me, and to know the mission of Grand Forks, the history of it, and to know that it had gone through a transition where we used to have KC-135s here, and then to move to a new mission set is exciting because we're on the cutting edge, and I think this base has so much to offer in terms of where the Air Force is headed, that we're actually doing the ground work for the present and the future." Faith is one of the values at Lewis' core, he said. "One of the things I love to talk to people about is their faith," he said. "Whether you're Christian, Muslim, agnostic, whatever your faith is, just understanding you as an individual are not the center of the universe, that there's other things happening around you, so when I talk about faith, I just mean being outwardly focused, not inwardly focused on yourself." Family and friends also rank highly on Lewis' list of values, he said. "Both of those things mean a lot to me," Lewis said. "I have friends that are closer to me than some of my family, and ironically, some of those friends are friends I've met in the Air Force. I highly value relationships." Lewis also spoke about resiliency and the value of continuous self-improvement. "When I talk about resiliency, it's just the ability of an individual to be prepared for situations that may happen or will happen, being physically fit, being mentally fit, being prepared for life. I also think that the moment you decide to stop learning is the moment you decide to stop growing, so I always want to learn something new, and I'm always excited to learn about what our Airmen do on the base at each of the different organizations." Lewis said Grand Forks has a wealth of advantages, including its standing as a place to nurture the growing field of remotely piloted aircraft aviation, its people, and its strong ties with the local community. He said he is ready to collaborate with other senior leaders on base to take Grand Forks into the future. "To me, when I think about the American Dream and freedom, I think about where I grew up," he said. "I think about Idabel, Oklahoma. And to have an Air Force Base and a place similar to that, where we're projecting the strength of America at its finest, that's Grand Forks. I think this base is uniquely positioned to thrive. Bring me some challenges so we can work together as a team and figure out how to solve them."