Wing reorganizes

An official ceremony on base Friday marked the reorganization of the 366th Wing, Air Force's lead Air Expeditionary Wing, from a composite force to a fighter wing.

The reorganization also made changes in a number of other areas, the result of an Air Force-wide reorganization of personnel ordered by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper. The purpose of the "combat wing organizations" is to align certain career fields under leadership with the same knowledge and experience.

"The biggest change is two of the groups get redesignated," said Lt. Col. Mark Fischer, of the 366th Wing Plans, Programs and Assessments office.

"The logistics group becomes the maintenance group and the support group becomes the mission support group."

A change that has already occurred is the stand-up of the logistics readiness squadron, which merged the supply squadron and the transportation squadron. The LRS, as well as the contracting squadron, will now be under the new mission support group. The remaining squadrons in the old support group will stay the same.

The maintenance group will contain the aircraft maintenance squadron, the maintenance operations squadron, the component maintenance squadron and the equipment maintenance squadron.

"There should be no change to the crew chief on the flightline or the pilot stepping to his jet, other than wearing a new hat or having a new patch, the job will stay the same," said Fischer. "It should be transparent to our combatant commander as well. We will deliver the same, if not a better product -- airpower."

Since the start of the year the wing has lost two flying squadrons, the 34th Bomb Squadron and the 22nd Air Refueling Squadron, as it configures itself from a composite force to a fighter wing, although it will retain much of its "on call" rapid reaction force capabilities at present.

The loss in personnel in those squadrons is being offset by an increase in maintenance crews and additional F-15E aircraft, and a huge increase in the size of the 726th Air Control Squadron, which provides radar battlefield management.