New county airport director wants to put experience into practice

Dave Darrah calls it his dream job.

On Monday, the 60-year-old Stafford County resident and retired Marine colonel started as the new director of the Warrenton-Fauquier Airport on U.S. 610 near Midland.

“I’m an aviator,” said Darrah, one of seven candidates interviewed for the job. “Airplanes are in my blood and here’s where the airplanes are.”

Darrah, who gets paid $73,000 per year, succeeds Mike Anderson, who retired in July.

He brings a wealth of relevant military and business experience to the job, said Deputy County Administrator Katie Heritage, who served on a five-person panel that interviewed applicants for the director’s position.

“He had a very extensive aviation background” during his Marine Corps career as a commander of a large air station in Japan, then in retirement as a defense contractor, from 2005 until 2011, Heritage said. “We unanimously thought Col. Darrah was the best” of the job candidates.

Darrah possesses strong interpersonal and communication skills, she said.

“He seems like a guy who will get along with everybody – the federal agencies and [county] staff, Heritage said.

Darrah will supervise an airport staff of four or five people, she said.

Airport Committee Chair - man Jim Van Luven, who served on the selection panel, called Darrah “head and shoulders above” the other candidates.

“He’s got the personality, the education and background” to help the airport realize its potential to expand Fauquier’s commercial tax base consistent with the county comprehensive plan, Van Luven said. “He has the desire, the will. He’s a guy that grabs hold and pushes you.”

Besides serving as a community-scale economic development engine, the county airport provides an alternative for small-craft traffic to Dulles International and Ronald Reagan International airports.

The airport must be self-supporting, deriving revenue from fuel sales, hangar rentals, land leases and maintenance fees.

Van Luven said the airport hangars about 160 planes and ties down a dozen-plus more.

Darrah said he wants to build upon the accomplishments of his predecessors, working closely with the facility’s tenants and neighbors.

“There’s a sense of family out here,” said Darrah, who has a master’s degree in natural resource strategy from the National Defense University (1995) and a bachelor’s degree in U.S. history and education from the University of North Florida (1974). “I want to foster that sense of camaraderie.”