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Col. firing linked to accountability push

The renewed emphasis on accountability likely cost a colonel his job — and his career. Col. Bryan Bearden, commander of the elite 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, Korea, was relieved of command Nov. 10 after problems in the wing’s maintenance group cropped up in a series of inspections.

Those problems caused Gen. Howie Chandler, Pacific Air Forces commander, to lose faith in Bearden’s leadership, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

A PacAF press release said he was fired because “duty performance factors” led Chandler to conclude “new leadership was required to maintain the highest levels of precision and reliability.”

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Did he deserve to get fired?

Col. Jerry Harris, who was serving as director of operations for 13th Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, replaced Bearden, who will be reassigned to a position outside Korea.

Bearden is not being investigated for any wrongdoing, sources said, but he presided over the wing during a series of recent inspections that found problems with the maintenance group’s adherence to technical orders and standards of documentation.

Before taking command of the Wolf Pack in May, Bearden had served most recently as commander of the 43rd Maintenance Group at Pope Air Force Base, N.C.

The 8th Fighter Wing passed its most recent operational readiness inspection in April 2007, and an Air Force official said subsequent inspections under Bearden’s command show that the unit remains combat-ready.

But the lack of attention to detail uncovered in the maintenance group during these inspections ran counter to the emphasis on accountability that has prevailed in the Air Force since Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael W. Wynne were fired June 5 after two high-profile mishaps involving nuclear weapons.

Chandler stressed the importance of accountability in a letter to all PacAF airmen just days after Moseley and Wynne were fired.

“We must scrutinize our performance to ensure we do not find ourselves lacking in credibility or in competence,” he wrote in the June 10 letter. “Levels of performance that fall short of our standards are simply unacceptable.”

The dismissal of Bearden shows that Chandler meant what he wrote.

“This has been a theme, and this was the undoing at Kunsan,” said a source.

While it is not unheard of for a wing commander to be fired, it is unusual.

The last wing commander to be relieved of command was Col. Bruce Emig, fired in October 2007 as commander of the 5th Bomb Wing, the unit responsible for the accidental transfer earlier that year of six nuclear warheads from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

That incident was the beginning of the end for Moseley and Wynne.

As one of two U.S. fighter wings on the Korean peninsula, the 8th Fighter Wing is considered the “tip of the spear” of the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific region.

The wing flies block-40 F-16 Fighting Falcons.

Commanding the wing has been a virtually guaranteed ticket to making general, as every commander since 1994 has later pinned on at least one star. (The most recent previous commander, Col. Charles Brown, has not yet made general officer.) Previous Wolf Pack commanders who went on to great success include Lt. Gen. Gary North, now commander of 9th Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Central, and Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove, who now commands 3rd Air Force at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

Bearden’s dismissal makes it highly unlikely that he will resuscitate his career and pin on a star.

The 8th Fighter Wing also presents daunting challenges. It is unique among wing commands in the Air Force because of its near-wartime environment, unaccompanied tours and frequent inspections.

“What makes the 8th Wing unique is that virtually all of the personnel assigned to that wing are there on one-year tours, so you have extremely fast turnover, which is a challenge for any commander,” said retired Gen. Richard Hawley, a former Air Combat Command boss and vice commander of 7th Air Force, which overseas the U.S. Air Force in Korea.

“That comes with a unique flavor to the operation that as a commander you have to understand up front and deal with.”

There is also greater potential for disciplinary problems in Korea, Hawley said, because tours are unaccompanied and many airmen spend their free time in bars.

Now, Harris, the new commander, must step in and restore the wing to the standards Chandler and other Air Force leaders expect of it.

But Hawley said Harris’ job shouldn’t be much harder than if it were a normal change of command.

“When you take over a new wing, it doesn’t make much difference whether it’s a normal turnover [or] your predecessor has been relieved,” he said.

“You’ve got to set your standards right up front. You’ve got to let people know what’s most important to you and give them an early feel for how to you’re going to approach the challenges of command.”