Great Lakes Wire

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner and former Congresswoman Candice S. Miller, a longtime advocate of Selfridge Air National Guard Base and the Michigan National Guard, has been appointed by the U.S. Air Force to a key advisory panel.

Miller will serve as a member of the Air and Space Forces Civic Leaders Program, in which she will have the opportunity to provide ideas and feedback to advise the Secretary of the Air Force, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Chief of Staff of Space Operations and other senior leaders about how missions can best be accomplished and about public attitude toward the Department of the Air Force.

“Supporting the men and women who wear our nation’s uniform, particularly those who serve at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, has been one of the great honors of my career in public service. I look forward to adding my voice to those who advocate for an enduring fighter aircraft mission at Selfridge and a recognition of the role our local Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and others assigned to the base have played in our national security,” Miller said.

“Recent events only point out how strategically located Selfridge is on our nation’s northern border. Maintaining a fighter mission is critically important to our nation’s national defense,” said Miller, referring to the shooting down of an unidentified object by an F-16 jet on Sunday over Lake Huron and three previous incidents over North Americans airspace in the last eight days including a suspected Chinese spy balloon downed off the coast of South Carolina.

A former member of Congress, Miller has long been considered a friend of the base and the people who serve there, said Brig. Gen. Rolf Mammen, commander of the base and the 127th Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard.

“Commissioner Miller has not only been a champion for the missions assigned to Selfridge, she understands the unique role the National Guard plays in the community and in our national defense structure,” Mammen said. “She has always been all-in for Team Selfridge.”

During her tenure in Congress, Miller was a chief advocate of the decision to elevate the Chief of the National Guard Bureau to four-star general status and to add the Chief as a permanent member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the primary military advisors to the President. She was also instrumental in the decision to locate the Customs and Border Protection’s Great Lakes Air & Marine Wing at Selfridge, among other issues.

The Air and Space Forces Civic Leader Program has existed for many years. Miller is in the first class of members of the program to include representation of Air National Guard facilities and their communities along with active duty Air Force bases.

Air and Space Forces Civic Leaders meet with Department of the Air Force officials once per year in Washington, D.C. and about two times per year at an Air Force facility to gain an understanding of current Air Force and Space Force missions and operations. 

In 2022, Mammen named Miller as an honorary “base commander” of Selfridge, located in Harrison Township, in recognition of her long-time advocacy of the base.

With more than 3,000 personnel assigned to the base and a more than 100-year history of military aviation, Selfridge has long been considered one of the largest, most complex Air National Guard bases in the nation. The Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Wing, which recently was selected to receive the Air Force Meritorious Unit Award for operations in 2021, is the host unit at the base. The wing is composed of 1,500 Citizen-Airmen and operates the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft and KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling aircraft at the base.

Miller will officially join the civic leader program during the organization’s March meeting in Washington D.C. and will serve a 4-year term.

During her 14 years as a member of Congress representing Michigan’s 10th District, Miller served as vice chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security and was chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security.

Original source can be found here.