By Julie Tomascik
Editor

Wayne Hofferichter has spent more than 40 years farming just south of Randolph Air Force Base, so military aircraft are simply part of everyday life.

But a recent visit to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland gave the Bexar County Farm Bureau president a firsthand look at the mission taking place just a few miles from his farm.

Hofferichter, along with several Texas Farm Bureau state directors and other regional civic leaders, toured the 433rd Airlift Wing and learned how military leaders work with neighboring landowners to safely share the landscape.

The visit was part of the wing’s civic leader engagement program that introduces community leaders to military operations while building relationships with organizations across South Texas.

“Our civic leader program is about outreach,” Col. Douglas Jeffrey IV, commander of the 433rd Airlift Wing, said. “We want to be good partners and good neighbors with our ag folks that live around bases.”

The 433rd Airlift Wing includes about 2,500 Air Force Reservists and operates eight C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft, the largest aircraft in the Air Force inventory. In addition to flying strategic airlift missions around the world, the wing serves as the formal training unit for every C-5 pilot, flight engineer and loadmaster in the Air Force.

The group learned about the maintenance, logistics, medical and mission support teams that keep those operations moving.

Hofferichter said the visit gave him a better understanding of the people and planning behind the aircraft he has watched fly overhead for decades.

“We’ve had that experience our entire lifetime,” Hofferichter said of farming near Randolph Air Force Base. “The noise from aircraft and the dealings we have occasionally with military personnel are just a day-to-day thing that we have to deal with. Cooperation both ways are great.”

That relationship between military installations and neighboring landowners was a common theme throughout the visit.

Jeffrey explained that communication with farmers and ranchers can help address issues ranging from harvesting activities that attract birds near flight paths to infrastructure projects that could interfere with military training routes or radar systems.

“Anything that affects them affects us as well,” Jeffrey said. “But when the crops are ready, the crops are ready. And so just being able to be a good neighbor and to listen to one another and to talk is important.”

The visit concluded with a flight aboard a C-5M Super Galaxy to give participants an opportunity to see the aircraft and its crew in action during a training mission. Small groups also had the chance to visit the cockpit while in flight for a pilot’s view of the mission.

The experience reinforced the connection between agriculture and the military, Jeffrey said.

“When we talk about food security, the things that we do as a nation, it’s important because the food that the farmers and ranchers provide allow us to have the meals and to do the things that we need to do,” Jeffrey said.