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OC-ALC commander signs third Educational Partnership Agreement

  • Published
  • By April McDonald
  • 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex commander signed an Educational Partnership Agreement with Oklahoma Christian University April 28, 2021. This is the third such partnership the OC-ALC has formed with a local university in the last year.

“We are very excited about this partnership,” said OC-ALC Commander Brig. Gen. Jeff King. “The benefit, from our standpoint, is the sharing of intellectual capital and capabilities without a transactional requirement.”

King said Tinker benefits from having access to tenured engineering professors who have studied in specific disciplines for years. “And we can tap into bright young minds who challenge our conventional thought,” he added.

The general said these educational partnerships align perfectly with the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s mandate to “Accelerate Change or Lose.”

“This partnership not only paves the way for OC-ALC to partner with the university in activities where their experience exceeds ours, but now we can open the door to our massive industrial plant and provide students with real-world problems that will bring their academics to life. When they see themselves helping to solve current sustainment challenges that impact operational readiness, we know it’s going to be inspiring.”

While this official agreement between the two entities is a new development, Dr. Byron Newberry said the University has had a relationship with Tinker for many years.

“The fingerprints of Tinker are all over this [engineering] program,” said Newberry, the division chair of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “We know that we are in rapidly changing times. We know we can’t sit back on what we’ve always done and succeed, we have to continue to adapt and that’s where this relationship is so powerful.”

The Complex has signed similar partnerships with the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. The objective of the agreements is to help OC-ALC accelerate the insertion of technological advances into the Complex’s industrial operations, enhance graduate and undergraduate engineering programs, and stimulate research and development in engineering fields.