USAF Forms New Wing for Joint New Jersey Facility

The Air Force has activated the 87th Air Base Wing at McGuire AFB, N.J., in the drive toward the new Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, mandated by BRAC 2005. Taking the reins of the new wing, which absorbs the base support functions that resided within the 305th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire, is Col. Gina Grosso, who previously led the Air Force Colonels Management Office at the Pentagon. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will merge support operations of McGuire, Ft. Dix, and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst. “Years from now, the historians will say that it was you, the initial 87th Air Base Wing cadre, who took the joint base concept from an idea to reality in ways that far exceeded the expectations of the committee that established the 12 joint bases.” (The road to joint base, for some, has not all been rosy; read “The Joint Base Dispute.”) The March 3 ceremony at McGuire also saw Col. Scott Smith advance from 305th AMW vice commander to command of the air mobility wing. (McGuire report by CMSgt. Paula Paige)