TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The Mississippi Air National Guard activated the 286th Air Operations Group of the 186th Air Refueling Wing to support the homeland defense and domestic disaster-response missions of the Continental US NORAD Region and 1st Air Force (Air Forces Northern) here April 8.
“Standing up the 286th AOG is a logical, efficient and effective way for us to accomplish our mission,” said Army Maj. Gen Garry C. Dean, commander of 1st Air Force and CONR-1st AF.
“The 286th will be able to rapidly augment our organization in the event of an emerging natural disaster or air threat to homeland security, and having this manpower pool and technical expertise will greatly enhance our ability to respond at a moment’s notice,” Dean said.
About 320 Airmen make up the unit, in various career fields – air battle managers, civil engineers, logistics, personnel, communications and even a chaplain – to provide ‘reach back’ for the CONR commander to utilize when the scope of an event warrants augmentation.
“The whole idea is to be able to deploy specialists to an area or to Tyndall rapidly,” said Air Force Col. William Platt, 286th AOG commander.
“If we had another disaster like Hurricane Katrina, the AFNORTH commander would be able to task the AOG, and we would send skilled Airmen to help with recovery and response actions,” Platt said.
“This is an absolute win-win situation for us,” said Air Force Col. Franklin Chalk, 186th ARW commander.