Meet our new commander: Col. Mike Schultz

  • Published
  • By 442d Fighter Wing Public Affairs

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo.-- Public Affairs sat down with Col. Schultz for a brief Q&A:

Where are you from?

"I was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but I grew up in Houston, Texas. I’m kind of a naturalized Texan."

Why did you join the Air Force?

"I’ve always had a sense of wanting to serve. I always wanted to be a fighter pilot growing up. I knew from the age of 7 what I wanted to do, and I’ve served in the Air Force for 28 years now."

Did you choose the A-10?

"I’ve always like the mission of the A-10, so it was absolutely my first choice. Best choice ever made."

What is your vision for the wing?

"The vision for the wing is to continue doing what we’re doing as far as being in the low end fight but getting us ready and providing any adversary that we might have a different problem set. Within 2 years we can pick up between 6 and 12 aircraft, go anywhere in the world, fly off of any surface that the wing is capable of flying off of, defending the ground. So my defenders defend it, taking PERSCO with us to do all the PERSCO requirements, maintainers to fix aircraft, and pilots to break peoples stuff and do bad things to them. I can pick up a subset of a wing and we go places and do stuff and make the enemy think about us."

What keeps you up at night?

"Not being able to resource my folks in a way that one, they require, and two, they want to be resourced. Because I know nobody wants to do just the minimums. Nobody wants to do just an average job, and I think it’s demoralizing when I can’t provide them resources to do the job that they want to do. The rest of it I think we can fix or work through, but not being able to resource my Airmen breaks my heart."

What do you do in your free time?

"I work for my wife, haha. No, I have hobbies. I like to shoot guns, I like to hunt. I have a car that I eventually want to be able to drag race soon, so I do a lot of high-risk, hazardous activities."

Do you think pineapple belongs on pizza?

"Personally, it is personal choice, I do not think that pineapple belongs on pizza. But if you ask my wife, she will tell you that I also keep my foods from touching on my plate. I don’t like fruit in salad. I don’t like fruit on pizza. I like meat and cheese on pizza and onions. To each his own, right? There’s a place for everybody if you like pineapple on pizza there’s room in for you in this wing.  And if you don’t like it then there’s also room for you. I love everyone equally."

Do you have anything you want to add?

'I have some books on my shelf, they’re free to check out if you want. I think that we have to own everything and not just the two feet around our bodies. We’re responsible for each other. We’re responsible for our buildings. We’re responsible for everything that we touch. If each of us think like that, then there can be no gaps and seams. Your welfare is my business as my welfare should be your business. We’re all human and we gotta take care of each other."