WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Maintaining relations with the business community and neighbors of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will be a priority, the new commander of the 88th Air Base Wing said.

Col. Amanda W. Gladney, who assumed command of the base’s host wing Monday, June 21, from predecessor Col. Bradley D. Spacy, said she has had some international experience in keeping in touch with a base’s neighbors. Maintaining relations with the British community was a focus during her 2005-2007 assignment as commander of the U.S. Air Force’s 48th Mission Support Group at the Royal Air Force Lakenheath base in England, she said.

Wright-Patt’s relationships with university and corporate researchers have boosted technology development efforts in recent years.

Gladney had a hurried introduction to Wright-Patt, flying in Sunday for a quick base tour with Spacy. Taking command of one of the Air Force’s largest base wings at the service’s hub for research and acquisition was a humbling experience, she said.

“It’s a little bit intimidating, but that’s OK,” Gladney said.

Her two children, high school students ages 14 and 17, had asked to skip final exams Monday to be with Gladney for her big day. “But I said, ‘no dice,’ ” Gladney told reporters, insisting that academics came first.

Most recently, Gladney was deputy chief information officer at the Pentagon for the Joint Staff, which serves the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Her background is in communications and information systems.

Gladney is the second woman to serve as Wright-Patt’s base commander. The base itself is older than the Air Force.

The only other woman to serve as base commander, Colleen Ryan, was in the audience Monday with other officials of the Dayton Development Coalition, the private-public organization she now serves as a vice president. Ryan retired as a colonel from the Air Force after passing the Wright-Patt command to Spacy in 2008.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.