JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center welcomed Brig. Gen. Patrick Miller as the Air Force Civil Engineer Center commander July 9 during a ceremony here.
AFIMSC Commander Maj. Gen. John Allen presented the AFCEC guidon to Miller, who takes command of a 2,200-person organization responsible for providing engineering services to 83 installations across the Department of the Air Force.
He replaces Brig. Gen. Willam Kale, who retired June 1.
The Pennsylvania native returns to AFIMSC where he was vice commander from July 2018 to June 2020. That assignment included a deployment to Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, as Task Force Phoenix commander in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael where he led the recovery and initial rebuild efforts that prepared the base for its rebirth as the Air Force’s model installation of the future.
Prior to taking command of AFCEC, Miller served as the director of Pacific Air Forces logistics, engineering and force protection. In his remarks to the AFCEC team, he said it was good to be returning to civil engineering-focused work after nine years in other assignments.
“It’s exciting to be back here and bringing in a different perspective,” Miller said. “I’m coming from an operational and tactical perspective … seeing what we’re dealing with out in the Pacific, the warfighter focus out there and the challenges on the horizon, but also recognizing the Pacific is not our only front.”
In highlighting the attributes that make the new AFCEC commander the right leader for the job, Allen referred to Miller’s recent PACAF tour and other positions in the recent past that prepped him for the worldwide work at hand.
“He has tremendous breadth in serving around this global enterprise that is the United States Air Force,” Allen said. “He has tremendous depth, particularly in the civil engineer business, but also beyond that. And he has current experience being supported at a (major command) by us.”
Miller said he was humbled to be AFCEC’s leader and shared a mantra he follows.
“As I serve you on a day-to-day basis, I want you to know that there are four words I truly believe in, and they are ‘mission focused, people driven,’” he said. “That’s the type of organization we are and that’s the type of organization we will continue to be: a team that is dedicated to delivering civil engineer services and capabilities … but in that focus we recognize we serve our warfighters. We serve our families. We own the ability to deliver combat capability to our Airmen and to our Guardians.”
Being people driven means having that focus within the organization too, Miller said.
“The challenges are weighty and the challenges are wide,” he said. “There’s an unsatiable appetite for our services, but because we have the best Airmen – uniformed and non-uniformed – serving our nation as part of this organization and we collaborate with a whole-of-enterprise concept across the Air Force IMSC portfolio … I know that together we are going to continue to move mountains. You are our most valuable resource. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve you each and every day.”
AFCEC is one of four primary subordinate centers under AFIMSC with missions that include facility investment planning, design and construction, operations support, real property management, energy support, environmental compliance and restoration, and audit assertions, acquisition and program management. The unit conducts its operations at more than 70 locations worldwide. Miller directly oversees execution of a more than $3 billion annual operations budget, delivery of a $3 billion annual military construction program and management of a $13 billion military housing portfolio.
Learn more about the new AFCEC commander by reading his biography
HERE