DVIDS – News – 24 SOW’s tenth Anniversary at Hurlburt

June twelfth marks the tenth anniversary of the 24 SOW at Hurlburt Subject. The “at Hurlburt” is essential right here because the wing’s lineage dates again to its unique institution because the US Army Air Forces twenty fourth Composite Wing (Particular) 19 November 1942 and activation on 25 December 1942. Upon activation at Camp Olympia, Reykjavik, the wing’s first mission concerned the protection of Iceland throughout World Warfare II by 15 June 1944. The wing’s unique weapon methods included P-38, P-39 fighter plane (1942-43), and P-40 and P-47 fighter plane (1944-44).

Previous to activation at Hurlburt in 2012, the wing is finest recognized for its many mission areas within the Caribbean and the Panama Canal Zone the place it served a few years because the host unit at each Howard and Albrook Air Power Bases. Between 1946 and 1948 the wing supervised giant numbers of main and minor bases and Air Power models within the Caribbean space from Puerto Rico to British Guiana. Organized once more in 1967 within the Canal Zone, the wing assumed operation and upkeep tasks for Howard and Albrook Air Power Bases (1967-1987 and 1989-1999) and particular operations mission units that included air transport, paramilitary operations, train participation, civic actions in Central and South America, search and rescue missions, humanitarian operations, mercy missions, aeromedical evacuation; in addition to assist of Army Special Forces, U.S. navy help models, and coaching of Latin American air forces. From activation in 1967 till mid-1972, the 24 Wing additionally operated the USAF Tropic Survival Faculty at Albrook.

From 1992-1999, the wing operated because the senior USAF group in Panama, changing the earlier command and division-level Air Power host models. In June 1992, it started working the one C-21, CT-43, C-27 and particular mission C-130s in Air Fight Command (ACC). The wing additionally supplied mission command and assist to multi-service models directed by United States Southern Command and United States Southern Air Power, 1992-1999. Mission areas included counternarcotic operations, aerial command and management, intratheater airlift, safety help, and the final protection of the Panama Canal. Throughout 1999, the wing carried out base closures and unit inactivations in compliance with the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 that stipulated all U.S. navy forces would depart Panama by 31 December 1999.

With the 24 SOW’s activation at Hurlburt 10 years in the past, AFSOC chosen the “24” from the inactive scrolls of Air Power historic models due to its lengthy historical past of and shut affiliation with almost all particular operations mission areas. From the mountaintops in Afghanistan to the depths of an notorious collapse Thailand, the 24 SOW carried out operations starting from the fiercest varieties of fight to the purest types of humanitarian help and catastrophe reduction.

At activation, the 24 SOW saved its superior lineage alive and, as importantly, it inherited the historical past of Air Power Particular Ways. After being activated at Hurlburt Subject and assigned to Air Power Particular Operations Command, the wing comprised of two Particular Ways teams, a coaching squadron, and operational squadrons with a mission to arrange, prepare, and equip Particular Warfare Airmen for fast world employment to allow airpower success.

Since 2012, the 24 SOW has been an integral a part of each main joint operation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, Africa, Europe, and Pacific theaters of operation. Particular Ways, from its starting, has supplied world entry capabilities inherent to no different unit within the Air Power or its sister companies – capabilities completely important to efficient navy operations. The 24 SOW additionally gives distinctive fast deployment, precision strike, personnel restoration, particular reconnaissance and battlefield surgical procedure capabilities. Right this moment the wing’s main weapon system just isn’t an plane weapon system typical in most Air Power wings. Right this moment, and since 2012, the 24 SOW’s weapon system is the women and men who present and maintain these capabilities for AFSOC and the Joint Power.

Since its activation 10 years in the past, members of the wing and its predecessor unit, the 720th Particular Ways Group, have been acknowledged with our nation’s highest valor awards to incorporate the Medal of Honor, 12 Air Power Crosses, 57 Silver Stars, and lots of of Bronze Stars. This degree of particular person recognition makes the 24 SOW the very best embellished group within the U.S. Air Power within the trendy period. On this particular anniversary of the 24 SOW at Hurlburt, the wing stays a ceaselessly reverent group and honors its members who made the final word sacrifice in each coaching and fight. Maybe the AFSOC commander Lt Gen James Slife acknowledged it finest, “Inside AFSOC – and the Air Power writ-large – no group [has] paid a higher human toll and carried a heavier deployment burden of the final 20 years than AFSOC’s Particular Ways Power.”