Like the new sheriff walking in at high noon, the newly appointed commander of the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos told a group of military and community officials Tuesday he means business and plans big changes to the base.
Lt. Col Dan Fox has been reassigned from his Pentagon job with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to assume command of a base that he suggested is in need of significant revitalization.
The 1940’s base occupies exactly half of the entire land area of Los Alamitos and this California native told a group of regional military officials Tuesday that his new job is to “nest” the base with surrounding communities.
“The big bosses up in Sacramento sent me here to bring a little bit more beautification to this base,” said Fox, knowing also “that we have to reinvigorate our community outreach programs and make the linkage between our soldiers, sailors, and Marines that work here on this base nested with the local communities.”
Moreover, Fox announced that the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin, had planned to visit Los Alamitos to tour the base last Friday, but had to cancel because of the war in Israel.
”He (Secretary Austin) called me the other day,” said Fox, “I’m looking forward to seeing you but I can’t make it. You’ve probably seen what’s going on in the news,” he said.
Nevertheless, Fox said he understands his mission at JFTB and that he planned extensive collaboration with neighboring communities to carry it out.
“As far as community outreach, I’ve had the honor to work with many of the local leaders,” he said, including representatives of the city of Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Cypress and others.
While Fox said he could not yet remember all of their names, he said “I’ll get better at it.”
Fox said with some certainty the “Race on the Base” will return as well as offering the swimming pool and other facilities on the base to local teams.
“We’re exploring the possibility of having more interaction with the city of Los Alamitos and being able to provide more community interaction,” he told the community and military offiials.
“There’s been some changes in in policies that have that have come up,” said Fox, “so I’m not a politician, I tell people to directly but I don’t have authority to say certain things so I’m I am doing what I can to get it an agreement that we can all benefit from,” he noted.
“I do the best I can to work with everybody,” said Fox. “I am all about the win-win. If you win and I don’t lose, that is also a win-win. I am here to manage the space, but as it is a fairly significant portion of the City of Los Alamitos and also the adjacent community, what happens here reflects on you or impacts on you and therefore, this is your base,” said Fox. “Although it is not,” he quickly added, tongue firmly in cheek.
