P4 brings big ideas, changes

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Dustin Mullen
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  
Big changes require coordination and big decisions. Tyndall and the local community are working together through the P4 initiatives, Public-Public; Public-Private Partnership, to help make those big changes possible.

"P4 is a way for Tyndall to look at partnering with other entities, like local or state governments or private entities in the community," said Col. Christopher D. Holmes, 325th Mission Support Group commander. "This will help us resolve issues or look at projects that are mutually beneficial."

While partnerships have existed between the surrounding communities, businesses and Tyndall in the past, this program is a way to resolve the most challenging issues with the oversight and staff support of Headquarters Air Force. 

During the meeting, Col. Derek C. France, 325th Fighter Wing commander, signed a program that allows a sharing of information between Tyndall and CareerSource Florida.

"The Veteran and Spouse Employment Information initiative will allow us to capture skill-sets of military members and spouses in a database," Holmes said. "This will allow employers to more effectively recruit potential employees and increase the opportunities for veterans to transfer their military skills to the civilian world. This enables Bay County to see what kinds of skill-sets are available and assist the county in recruiting new industry that can capitalize on those skill-sets."

At the meeting, working groups also discussed a potential dredging project that will expand the port of Panama City. Tyndall would serve as a location for the dredging spoils.

"This would be a big economic benefit for the community," said Holmes. "Tyndall's benefit, other than being a good neighbor, is that we would have potential use of these spoils to help control beach erosion or other benefits."

They also discussed a few partnerships in the medical community.

"We are working to better utilize resources between the civilian medical community and the medical community on base," Holmes said. "One initiative is a time-share plan that will allow us to utilize medical space downtown so that we can provide follow-up medical care for TRICARE recipients in a much closer location to their off-base residences."

One other initiative is to station a Bay County Advanced Life Support ambulance on base that will provide more advanced capability with improved response times to Tyndall medical emergencies, while also better supporting Mexico Beach and Parker.

"We were really able to chart ways forward and set up the next milestones for most of these initiatives," said Holmes. "For a lot of these, it wasn't clear exactly what action needs to be taken next, but with everyone in one set location we were able to move along."

The official program kicked off at Tyndall March 21, when 50 members of the base and local community came together for the first time to discuss the program.

"It's not business as usual. It will take time," said Maj. Gregg A. Quinones, partnership broker assigned to the Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics. "We're breaking new ground."