KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

Col. Grant Mizell, commander of Arnold Air Force Base and the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), gave a briefing on what’s been happening at the base to the Tullahoma Noon Rotary Club.

Mizell first thanked the club for the organizing the previous meeting with guest speaker Sen. Marsha Blackburn, stating that the turnout was an “incredible show of community support,” and for city officials for including the base in the follow-up roundtable discussion with Blackburn. He said he heard a point from some of the members that they were looking for a win from the base during his base update, and he shared his philosophy that base wins when the community wins.

“This is our community,” Mizell said. “When the community wins, the base wins by default.”

Mizell began his briefing by talking about the successful stage two test of the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by the 717th Test Squadron at AEDC. As Mizell explained, the test conducted was conducted in a vacuum chamber to simulate high-altitude conditions and tested the motor’s thrust, the burn profile and steering capabilities. The data from the test will help to refine design elements and reduce technical risk.

“That was a big success,” Mizell said. “It shows you that Tullahoma, Arnold Air Force Base and this entire team are part of our national defense. That is the newest, latest, greatest piece of the nuclear triad that’s keeping America safe.”

Mizell proceeded and talked about some changes that have taken place with some of the personnel, including the recent addition of Chief Master Sgt. Evan “Big Country” McCoy as AEDC’s Senior Enlisted Leader. McCoy, who was in attendance as Mizell’s guest, received praised from Mizell as an “expert in almost everything,” noting McCoy was flying some planes prior to the meeting.

“I’m a test pilot and he had to go show me up and fly airplanes,” Mizell joked. “Now I’ve got to fly down to New Mexico so I can go fly an airplane because I can’t have him flying more recently than me.”

Other recent changes in personnel include Col. Jack Rhodes assuming command of the 804^th Test Group and six active-duty defenders on temporary duty from Robins Air Force Base in Georgia to patrol the roadways, support and protect Arnold’s national security mission. Mizell said due to manpower reductions and the hiring freeze, which was issued by President Donald Trump earlier this year for the civilian workforce, the defenders were brought in to help to stopgap support to Department of the Air Force police officers at Arnold.

“They’re out here for the next three months and they’re helping us to make sure we keep those roads, to make sure we keep the perimeters safe and to make sure we keep the base safe,” Mizell said.

The next topic Mizell discussed was the public tours of the base. So far in 2025, the base has held 54 tours which saw 1,090 visitors, which included students, the general public, contracting and military.

“This is your base,” he said. “We want to show you the cool stuff we’re doing. We want to show you where we’re spending your taxpayer dollars and we want you to have confidence in the work that we do every day to keep America safe.”

Mizell said the majority of the tours consisting of students, including local students from Coffee County Central High School, Franklin County High School and Tullahoma High School. These tours have consisted of various programs and clubs that include S.T.E.M., welding and other trades that could lead to a job at the base in the future.

Then Mizell shared some good news and bad news about staffing at the base. The bad news was that the staffing levels were down by 11.5% due to the hiring freeze.

“We’re getting a couple exceptions to it,” Mizell said. “We’re working really hard to make sure that we get the right message to our elected leaders, our Pentagon leaders, our congressional leaders, to make sure that where we need to keep hiring for public safety, where we need to keep hiring for the good of America.

He continued and said they are getting waivers through to make sure the base keeps hiring, but it has been challenging.

“They came through and they took 11.5% skim off of our budget, and we had to cut that many manpower positions across our civilian workforce.”

He said since 82% of the base’s workforce is contractors, and that workforce has not been affected since the hiring freeze was towards the government civilian workforce. But that didn’t negate some of the challenges the base faces as it continues to work with projects like the ICBM program and hypersonic.

“This is really high-tech work, and this is work that is done in this community and only this community,” Mizell said. “Hypersonic work in the United States of America and the Western world, it starts here in Tullahoma, so we need a workforce to do that because that’s where the future is, and that’s where the federal is putting a lot of money.”

He continued and said, “We need to maintain a bolstered, fully man workforce, all those craft trades, as well as all those engineering trades, to make sure that we’re able to deliver for America. This 11.5% reduction, we’re gonna keep working through it. We’re gonna continue working to inform our elected leaders where we need a little bit of help to make sure that we’re bolstering your base and running it correctly.”

Mizell then shared data from the regional economic impact report for FY24, which showed that the base generated $1.1 billion in economic activity to the community. He added that the base has received a surge of hypersonic funding of $3.5 billion over the next four years.

“That’s a ton of money coming here to make sure that we can support America, and it’s a ton of money coming to your community,” Mizell said. “We are constantly working with Mayor Sebourn and with the entire team to make sure that Tullahoma is ready to receive with the housing, with the childcare, with the education services, with the jobs for spouses to come to town.”

Concluding his presentation, Mizell stated that the base employs over 3,000 people in military, civilians and contractors, and praised everyone who works at the base and AEDC for producing the world’s foremost aeronautical systems experts keeping America, and the world, safe.

“Arnold still remains one of the most expensive, highest tech and most invested in Air Force bases across the globe,” Mizell said. “Thank you again for 75 years for supporting Arnold Force Base.”