Local AF detachment transfers command

Published June 23, 2008
By Staff Sgt. Eric Burks
62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

KENT, Wash. -- Members of McChord's Honor Guard stood patiently outside the door, awaiting the signal to enter the room and post colors during a change-of-command ceremony June 13.

Col. Joseph Wiley, 62nd Operations Group Commander, was one the distinguished guests in the audience, but the change-of-command did not take place at McChord.

The ceremony, held at the Boeing facility in Kent, was not for a unit or tenant of the 62nd or 446th Airlift Wing, but for Detachment 1 of the 505th Operations Group. The group is assigned under the 505th Command and Control Wing, Hurlburt Field, Fl., and ultimately reports to the Air Warfare Center, Nellis AFB, Nev.

Det. 1, USAF Tactical Air Warfare Center was activated in 1972, as a member of the E-3A AWACS Joint Test Force, the Boeing Company, Seattle, Wash.

The JTF has a complicated mission involving AWACS testing and development, and is committed to "providing world class next-generation command and control equipment," said incoming detachment commander Lt. Col. Peter Bastien.

While the detachment is not administratively part of Team McChord, it relies on the base for support functions such as visits to the military personnel flight, base clinc and Airman and Family Readiness Center. Additionally, Master Sgt. David Dant, the emcee for the change of command, even lives in McChord's base housing.

Col. Patrick Raglow, commander of the 505th Operations Group at Nellis AFB, Nev. thanked Col. Wiley for coming to the event and said that the support the detachment receives from McChord was outstanding.

"We love being part of a small Air Force community, while at the same time having a much larger Air Force family just down the road," said outgoing detachment commander Lt. Col. William Neuenswander.