San Francisco

Wings of Gold, Summer 2005 by Spink, Tom

The San Francisco Bay Area Squadron had the distinct privilege to host one of our nation's four-star CinCs. ADM Timothy Keating is Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was in Bahrain in '02 with GEN Tommy Franks as the Navy Component Commander. He speaks highly of "lessons learned" not just observed. With respect to weapons, he makes the distinction that they are "obedient" bombs and not exactly "smart" bombs. He also said that our Blue Force tracking was better than in 1991 but still not perfect. He is most proud of the combined and joint effort that coalition forces brought to the fight in Desert Storm. Their flexibility and speed were unprecedented. Part of this was attributable to realistic training, like that in Fallon, Nevada, a previous command for the admiral.

ADM Keating was serious when he said, "Our nation has been at war since 9/11 and there are real bad guys out there." He and his staff of 1,200 are involved with protecting our homeland every day. He is an impressive Naval officer, a true leader, and an outstanding American. (CAPT Tom Spink, CO)