Ellsworth eager to work with mission partners, community

  • Published
  • By Mark Wyatt
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Col. Chad Ellsworth, who took over as the 66th Air Base Group and installation commander earlier this month, is eager to work with members of the group, mission partners and the local community.

“My primary role is to ensure that everyone within the Air Base Group has the resources and means to execute the mission,” he said. “My goal is to make Hanscom the benchmark, to live and work.”

Since taking command, Ellsworth has been learning about the work done at Hanscom AFB, as well as meeting those responsible for it.

“I want to understand our mission partners’ requirements, including those in the program offices, Department of Defense agencies, tenant units, GSUs [geographically separated units] and residents,” he said. “My commitment to them is the group’s unwavering dedication to secure, support and sustain those requirements.”

As one of his initial priorities is product and service excellence, Ellsworth will work to educate mission partners about the ABG mission.

“It’s important that they understand how we connect our capabilities to requirements based on Air Force, command and Air Force Life Cycle Management Center goals and objectives,” Ellsworth said. “We want to take an enterprise approach to empower agile combat support capabilities.”

The colonel spoke about touting the work done at Hanscom while meeting with members of the local community.

“I will carry the message of what our mission partners do here on base,” Ellsworth said. “I will highlight the tremendous work Team Hanscom is doing for our nation, for our national defense.”

As another initiative, he discussed his desire to foster collaborative relationships with the community.

“There needs to continue to be a mutual understanding of our needs as well as their needs and to grow those relationships with our community partners because that’s important,” he said.

Prior to taking command at Hanscom, the colonel was a National Defense Fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Ellsworth, who grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, is the son of a retired dentist. He attributes his leadership style to the example set by his father as well as many mentors throughout his military career.

“People are watching,” he said. “They’ll listen to what you have to say, but actions speak louder than words. If you say something, and your actions back that up, people will trust you as a leader.”

His leadership approach and advice for others derives from some core principles, which he characterizes as his ‘Four Be’s.’

During a commander’s call with ABG personnel at the base theater Aug. 6, the colonel highlighted them: Be passionate, Be effective, Be disciplined, and Be balanced and integrated.

“Have a passion for what you do, which means coming to work every day saying ‘I’m going to make a difference,’” Ellsworth said. “As far as being effective, that’s communicating clearly up and down and sideways. Be disciplined; that’s inherent in our core values. And then some people call it work-life balance, but it’s integrating what you do every day from the standpoint of work, family, spiritual or whatever your own interests are in order to recharge.”

Among his numerous other assignments in the Air Force, Ellsworth served as a group deputy commander, squadron commander and served a joint assignment as a deputy program manager for Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

As Hanscom’s commander, Ellsworth is responsible for securing, supporting and sustaining more than 10,000 active duty, Reserve and National Guard personnel, Defense Department civilians, contractors and families, along with 130,000 retired military and spouses living in the six-state New England region and New York.