A New Unit for ACC’s Ground Airmen

Air Combat Command plans in late January to activate the 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing at Moody AFB, Ga. The new wing will oversee ACC’s battlefield airmen—tactical air control party and combat weather—and specialized force protection elements of the 3rd Air Support Operations Group at Ft. Hood, Tex., the 18th ASOG at Pope AFB, N.C., and 820th Security Forces Group at Moody. Previously these units got support directly from a number Air Force, but ACC expects the new arrangement to make it even easier to standardize training and employment. Brig. Gen. Michael Longoria, who heads 9th Air Force’s Det. 5 at Moody and is tasked with organizing the new wing, said of the combination of security forces with battlefield airman specialties: “In Iraq, fighting right alongside our security forces airmen are Army maneuver elements that are embedded with Air Force TAC-Ps. There is a natural relationship between ‘fight-the-base’ force protection and the TAC-Ps ‘terminal attack’ mission of being a liaison to and supporting the Army.” (Report by Capt. Dustin Hart)