MCCHORD FIELD, Wash.- Almost four years after taking command of the 446th Airlift Wing back in September 2007,  Col. William Flanigan will be passing the wing flag to Col. Bruce Bowers in the middle of June.

Colonel Flanigan will serve as the Crisis Action Team director at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. Colonel Bowers is currently the deputy director, Air Space and Information Operations, Air Force Reserve Command at Robins Air Force Base, Ga.

"Working here didn't feel like work," said Colonel Flanigan. "In fact, it was more fun than anything. I really loved being here."
 
Brig. Gen. Mark Kyle, 4th Air Force commander, March Air Force Base, Calif., will bestow Colonel Bowers the responsibility of organizing, training, equipping, and readiness of the wing with nearly 2,100 people and Reservists who are capable of deploying anywhere in the world, 365 days a year for combat, training and humanitarian efforts.

"(My wife) and I are thrilled beyond words for this assignment," said Colonel Bowers. "It is truly a dream come true. I look forward to working with the Airmen, Soldiers and civilians of the 446th and 62nd Airlift Wings and Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The mission assigned to these great Americans is vital to this nation and to our way of life. I am truly honored."

Colonel Bowers entered the Air Force in 1981 and was commissioned though Officer Training School, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. A senior command pilot, he has more than 9,000 hours flying military aircraft, including the C-17.

The official assumption of command is scheduled for the morning of July 9 on the Reserve weekend.

CAMP MURRAY - The Washington National Guard will bid farewell to the 116th Air Support Operations Squadron in a ceremony on Saturday, March 26 at 6:00 p.m. in Building #92 on Camp Murray.

The unit will serve in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and will be
based in Afghanistan.  Approximately 20 Washington Air National Guard
members will comprise the deploying force of the 116th.

"We are extremely proud of the 116th.  They are well trained, experienced
and ready to accomplish any mission they are given," said Major General
Timothy J. Lowenberg, the Adjutant General and commander of the Washington
National Guard.

The 116th is headquartered at Camp Murray and is part of the Washington Air
National Guard's 194th Regional Support Wing.  The citizen-airmen of the
116th are Tactical Air Control Party members; often considered the furthest
extension of Air Force influence on the Army's battlefield.  TACP airmen
deploy into combat with Special Operations teams and serve as close air
support experts, advising ground commanders on the use of Air Force assets
in combat.  They serve as forward air controllers, winning battles by
guiding weapons onto target.

Pre-deployment training for the 116th began last fall and included events at
Fort Irwin, California and Fort Stewart, Georgia.  The deployment is
scheduled to last approximately four months.  Although individual members of
the unit have deployed previously, this is the first deployment in the
squadron's history of this size.     

This from Air Force Times: A security forces officer and a joint terminal attack controller injured in Afghanistan each received the Purple Heart on Wednesday from the Air Force's top officer.

More than 300 airmen looked on as Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz presented the honor to Capt. Gil Wyche and Senior Airman Brandon Cullen Towle during a visit to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

Wyche, a security forces officer assigned to the 966th Air Expeditionary Squadron, received shrapnel wounds during an insurgent attack on his base in Jalalabad in mid-November. Fighters using small arms and grenades rushed the perimeter of Forward Operating Base Fenty. Despite the wounds, Wyche and his team repelled the attack.

"We knew where we were going and we knew it was a hotbed," Wyche, deployed from RAF Lakenheath, England, said in a news release. "But, nothing can prepare you until the bullets actually start flying, grenades start getting thrown on top of you, and you start firing back. My guys responded very well."

Towle, a JTAC assigned to the 817th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron, was working out at the gym at FOB Connolly in Nangarhar province in early January when an indirect-fire round exploded near him. Shrapnel pierced his upper thigh. He ran to cover in a bunker, where medics treated the wounds.

Towle then began calling in airstrikes that helped end the assault.

"This wasn't the first time these guys attacked us," said Towle, who is in the fifth month of his six-month deployment from Pope Air Force Base, N.C. "I just wanted to eliminate the threat once and for all."

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The 446 Mission Support Squadron commanded by Lt. Col. William Pelster was deactivated and the 446 Services Flight commanded by Lt. Col. Patricia Keenan was redesignated, combining both units to form the new 446 Force Support Squadron here, Dec. 1. 

The 446 Force Support Squadron was formally activated in a ceremony at Hanger 9 on Dec. 5. Following a welcome by Col. Gerald Vowell, 446 Mission Support Group Commander, the former MSS and SVF unit flags were retired and the new 446 FSS flag was unfurled, marking Colonel Pelster's assumption of command for the newly formed Force Support Squadron.

Colonel Vowell said the merger between mission support and services flight was part of an effort by the Air Force to streamline processes, increase efficiencies, maximize customer services, and cut costs associated with maintaining two separate organizations. 

"You put these two functions under one command structure and you can only improve customer services which will be a huge benefit to Joint Base Lewis-McChord community," said Colonel Vowell. 

Tech. Sgts. Steven Ostrander and Robert Fitzpatrick, both assigned to the 62nd Security Forces Squadron at McChord Field, received Bronze Star medals Aug. 18 for their leadership, forward thinking and technical knowledge during their deployments supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

For more on the airmen and what they did, click here.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - What an exciting way for about 250 men and women to start their Air Force career and for Joint Base Lewis-McChord to start Air Expo 2010. 

About 250 new Air Force recruits will be sworn-in at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning during a record-breaking ceremony at the JBLM Air Expo.

Col. Kevin Kilb, 62nd Airlift Wing commander, will enlist approximately 250 new recruits into the U.S. Air Force Delayed Entry Program.  This enlistment breaks the previous record of 178 DEP recruits swearing-in at the same time.  All of the men and women enlisting have come together through recruiting efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The enlistment will take place on the Air Expo flightline in front of a large military aircraft static display, just before the aerial acts take to the sky at 11 a.m. 

According to a blurb on the Los Angeles Times' Web site, nearly 200 women who served as military pilots during World War II as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program will be on hand Wednesday to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

One of these women (although I can't confirm she'll be at the ceremony) attended the McChord Air Expo in 2008.

The memorial to honor the lives of four Lakewood City Police officers shot and killed Nov. 29 at a coffee shop near McChord started the day at McChord Air Force Base.  The photos below were posted online following the brief kick-off ceremony at the Air Force base.