New ‘mayor’ takes over Nellis today

Jace Radke

Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 | 9:09 a.m.

Col. Walter Givhan called Nellis Air Force Base home five years ago, when he served a two-year stint as a combat training squadron commander. Now he's returning to the Air Force's premier training facility to run its day-to-day operations.

Givhan officially takes over today as Nellis' 99th Air Base Wing commander, a job that has become known as "the mayor of Nellis," because it is similar to running a small city.

Givhan, who from July 1997 to June 1999 was commander of the 549th Combat Training Squadron at Nellis, takes over for Col. Gerald Sawyer, who was named 99th commander in January 2003. Sawyer is transferring to the Air Warfare Center at Nellis, where he will be a special assistant to Maj. Gen. Stephen Wood.

Fire trucks, forklifts, Hummers and just about anything else at Nellis that doesn't have wings falls under the authority of the 99th commander. The wing provides law enforcement, contracting, medical services and other forms of support for all of the other infrastructure and daily concerns at the base.

Givhan will be in charge of supporting more than 10,000 personnel and more than 112,000 family members, retirees and veterans.

Sawyer was scheduled to turn over his duties to Givhan at a ceremony today at the Thunderbird hangar at Nellis.

Givhan served as the Air Force liaison to the French ground forces commander during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. He is a command pilot with more than 2,500 flying hours and has served tours of duty as an F-15C Eagle pilot at Bitburg Air Base, Germany, and Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.