Col. Frank J. Klimas is the Commander, 505th Command and Control Wing, Detachment 1 at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Det. 1’s mission is to provide airpower expertise and exercise support to the Mission Command Training Program (MCTP). The detachment provides airpower academics during MCT and doctrinally-correct, theater- specific airpower integration and replication in MCTP exercises. Det. 1 provides observer, coach/trainer support and U.S. Air Force (USAF) exercise control to prepare warfighters for future operations through U.S. Army (USA) Mission Rehearsal and Warfighter exercises. As commander, he is the principal airpower advisor to the USA’s Training and Doctrine Command, Combined Arms Center. He leads a team responsible for advising the command on present and future weapon systems, ordnance, tactics, procedures, capabilities and limitations as they affect force structure, concepts, doctrine, training, modeling, simulation, acquisition and analysis programs.
Col. Klimas enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1988 and served seven years at sea and ashore. He was commissioned in 1999 as a distinguished graduate of the USAF Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is a Special Operations Combat Systems Officer (CSO), a Weapons Officer, and a Department of Defense certified Foreign Area Officer for the Middle East and North Africa region.
Prior to his current position, the colonel was the Chief, Joint Integration, USAF Element (AFLEM), USA Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and an assistant professor in the Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational Operations, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
For Frank, the IRC matters because it provides a venue for Kansas City citizens for discourse and participation in international events to enrich their lives, and is a necessary institution adding value to a cosmopolitan world-class city.