Captain T.D. Smyers, Base Commander

NAS/JRB, January 5, 2009

Captain T.D. Smyers, Commander of the Naval Air Station/Joint Base Reserve Base/Fort Worth was a welcome speaker for the River Oaks Area Historical Society recently.  He told the group that in 1979 while he was in high school, decided he wanted to apply to the United States Naval Academy, a desire he called strange for someone who up in “land-locked” Boyd.  He traveled to what was then Carswell Air Field Base to apply and to take a physical aptitude test.  He also received a nomination from a congressman to go to the Naval Academy which he accepted and completed his education there.

During the early part of his career, Captain Smyers flew an aircraft modeled on what is now known as the Lockheed Electra, and he said he had a ball.  He flew out of the Mediterranean area as well as the Atlantic and Pacific areas and all around South America .  He also had a six months assignment in Bermuda , stating it was a tough assignment.  That brought laughter from the audience.

Part of his duty was tracking Russian submarines that were a real threat to our country at that time.  It as not too long though till the Berlin Wall fell, Soviet communism crumbled and our county found itself in a very different situation.  There was no war and the Department of Defense was struggling with what to do next, knowing that a new threat would surface sooner or later.  However, they were taken quite by surprise by the world Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, and military vigilance changed radically at that time.  Even prior to the 9-11 attack, the Navy began to see the need for large-scale operations like the Strategic Air Command that was built to counter any Soviet threats.  He said it was at that time when a lot of smart, concerned and patriotic people got together and formed a plan to reopen Carswell Air Force Base.  It became a reality within a short time.

Captain Smyers told us that within the next year, there will be more people employed at what we now know as the Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base/Fort Worth, than were employed at Carswell Air Force Base.  A mixture of active duty military, reserve military and civilian personnel will be employed there.  The operation has grown immensely.  The F16 unit is growing with a lot of active duty military people, the Army is moving in with a large Facility and the Marine Corps continues to fly the F18 Hornet, as well as two other planes.  He said many changes have taken place since the facility was first known as Tarrant Field prior to becoming Carswell Air Force Base.  The captain said he is often introduced as the Commanding Officer of Carswell Air Force Base and he doesn’t mind that at all.  He said he often introduces himself with that same title because he has learned in his 28 years of service that it is important to remember where you came from.  He went on to as that the heritage of that particular piece of land is a significant piece of military powering America, and it is important to know where we have been in order to plot where we are going.

Prior to coming to the NAS/JRB, Captain Smyers commanded two squadrons, did a tour of duty at the Pentagon and studied at the National Defense University.  These experiences made it clear to him the importance of knowing history.  He spoke appreciatively of the monument on the Base to Horace Carswell, for whom the Base is named and mentioned several other historical monuments on the Base.  He noted that in 1949, the first round-the-world flight landed at the Base and a plaque commemorates that.  He is always trying to discover more about the rich history of the Base.  As part of this, the Captain noted that the NAS/JRB/Fort Worth was the first “joint” base in the country but joint basing is now the vogue and is done in South Carolina, New Jersey, Florida and Washington.  The Captain has also started attending services at the Base Chapel where he has found the people who worship there to be very unique and to have histories that go back many years.  Some of them have been prisoners of wars.  He is proud of the wealth of military history that goes back to when NAS/JRB was originally an Army base and even later, an Air Force Base.

Captain Smyers said he was bringing a reservist on active duty for six months and his job is to catalogue the history of the Base, including some residents who still live and work here and are part of the community.  He noted that if their stories are not captured in some way, we will lose that part of our history.  The Captain wants to keep working toward a “Base or the Future,” one that can never be closed down.  He wants the relationship between the Base and the community to become even closer knit and that he welcomed stories concerning the history of the facility.  Captain Smyers asked Historical Society members to contribute anything along that line. The Captain called himself an Ambassador from the Department of Defense and said he loves his job.

He and his wife, Barbara, live on the Base and we are happy to have them in the community.  Captain Smyers is a great communicator and we very much enjoyed having him speak for the Historical Society.