Brandon Hears Again From MacDill Air Force Base Commander Richoux

Two months after he spoke before the Kiwanis Club of Greater Brandon, Col. Lenny J. Richoux was back in town to talk about his base's relationship to the Greater Brandon area.

This time, Richoux spoke before the Rotary Club of South Brandon, at its May 18 meeting at the Buckhorn Springs Golf & Country Club in Valrico.

Richoux is commander of both the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and the 6th Air Mobility Wing; as he told the Kiwanians, that means he's like both "a mayor and president of an airline."

reported on Richoux's March 17 meeting at in Brandon, where he talked about his overriding responsiblities and commitment to helping military families deal with the stresses of both their lives and the times we live in.

As Richoux noted: “It’s a stressful time to be in the military. We’ve been at war coming up 10 years now. Half my career we’ve been at war and that blows my mind. And that’s wearing us down. And as the economy goes down people’s marriages go down and as the economy recovers, people get divorced. The stresses of deployment are starting to present themselves. Mental health issues, caring for children, all those problems are not going unnoticed.”

Richoux is making it a point to deal with these issues on base and off, talking before community groups and organizations in the Greater Brandon area, where, Richoux said, some 80 percent of assigned MacDill personnel live.

That's why MacDill has made efforts to bring MacDill resources closer to the people the base serves, according to a Bloomingdale Patch report on the commander's May 18 talk before the Rotarians.

Among the article's higlights:

• The base has a MacDill Air Force Base Branch Clinic, which provides medical services to MacDill personnel and their families. Currently the clinic is located at 220 Grand Regency Blvd., Brandon, but will be moving to a larger 35,000-square-foot facility, said Richoux. The clinic eliminates the need for MacDill families to drive to the Air Force base for their medical needs.
• In addition, there's an Airman & Family Readiness Center satellite office located at 710 Oakfield Drive, Suite 153, Brandon.  The center offers a variety of services for military families including employment, financial, family readiness and transition services. In addition, there's Internet, fax and a copier available for families to use. The center also offers legal assistance, playgroups, special events for military families, computer technology classes, tax preparation services and CPR training.
• Since coming to MacDill, Richoux also has instituted once-a-month night out and dinners for spouses and significant others of deployed service members and their children. The next dinner will be held June 21 at the .
• Richoux said he plans in April to open the waters around the base to area anglers.
• The Friends of MacDill program is for people interested in taking advantage of base perks, including its two 18-hole golf course, bowling alley, marina, beach club. Civilians can obtain special identification cards that will give them access to the base, provided they pass a background check.