Maxwell Commander Moving For New Duty
It’s been two years since Colonel Trent Edwards took command of the 42nd Air Base Wing at Maxwell Air Force Base.
He’s leaving at the end of the month for a new assignment, but he’s leaving behind a big impact on the river region.Â
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Colonel Edwards is moving to San Antonio to be in charge of basic training for the Air Force. But he says he will deeply miss his time at the best hometown in the air force.
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With only a few weeks left to walk these halls, Col. Edwards has a lot to reflect on with his time at Maxwell Air Force Base.
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One of the biggest challenges he’s faced is dealing with budget cuts. Thousands of civilian employees were furloughed last year as part of sequestration and he doesn’t expect that problem to go away after he leaves.
“It creates challenges both for airmen and their families as across the department of defense we’re looking at scaling back and reducing certain programs. We’re looking at reducing certain platforms so that we can remain within the budget control act,” said Col. Edwards.
But there have been a lot of positive things to look back on. Under his command, the base has been working in a special partnership with the surrounding communities.Â
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“We have Freedom Park that is being essentially donated through private donations that will be the mainstay if you will of our local community on this base. I’m very proud of that,” said Col. Edwards.
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“It’s been time after time that we’ve been around the table and he’s been so open and so receptive, he has a great staff to really figure out not why we can’t but how we can,” said Strange.Â
There will be a change of command ceremony on May 30th where Col. Edwards will hand over the reigns to Col. Andrea Tullos.
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