COL Robert K. Lyman: USAF, Commander, Joint Base Charleston and 628th Air Base

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

April 26, 2016 – Colonel Rob Lyman joined us to give us an update on  Joint Base Charleston and remind us of how extensive the base’s mission is, not only locally but on a national and global scale.

Colonel Lyman is the Commander of both Joint Base Charleston and the 628th Air Base Wing, South Carolina.  As the commander, he is responsible for $7.5 billion in base property and capital assets and controls an annual budget exceeding $172 million.  He most recently served as the Director of Communications and Chief Information Officer of Headquarters Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base.  Formerly, he was the Chief of Strategy Integration in the Air Force Office of Business Transformation, has served as a White House Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, and has multiple combat zone deployments. 

Joint Base Charleston is one of the Department of Defense’s 12 Joint Bases and is a power projection platform, consisting of all branches of the military and was officially merged on 1 October, 2010. As host to over 60 DoD and Federal agencies, the Wing provides installation support to a total force of over 90,000 Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, civilians, dependents, and retirees across four installations including Charleston AFB and Naval Weapons Station Charleston. Colonel Lyman, compared this to the number of visitors to Disney World in a day across 4 parks. In addition, the Wing provides mission-ready expeditionary Airmen to Combatant Commanders in support of Joint and Combined operations worldwide.

The base’s mission sets include:

The 628th Air Base Wing which provides installation support and is the public face of the base. These airmen do more than what is normally expected, including dredging rivers, railcar operations, harbor security patrol and recently added a transportable isolation system for transport of infectious disease patients.

Airlift and Airdrop are the most visible operations and is a cooperative effort between active duty and reserve forces.

Joint Base Charleston is also the only base with special operations capabilities for airlift. Other missions include FISA or fixed installation satellite antennae and medical evacuation (through the 315th Airlift Wing (Reserves)

Don Baus, Keyway Committee Chair