The Experiment is Over, the Time Has Come to Reorganize the 116th Air Control Wing into an Active Associate Unit

Abstract

Abstract : On Saturday June 22nd, 2002 two B-1 Lancers from the Georgia Air National Guard's (GA ANG) 116th Bomb Wing (BW) taxied off the runway at Robins AFB, GA and parked nose-to-nose on the Air National Guard (ANG) B-1 ramp culminating the end of one era and the beginning of a new association with the United States Air Force's (USAF) Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) weapons system, a low-density high-demand (LD/HD) asset which provides critical Command and Control Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C2ISR) to battlefield commanders. For the 50-year-old Air Guard unit, this event marked the passing of...a long and illustrious heritage. The transformation to a new organization commenced on Monday, September 30, 2002, [when] the 116th Bomb Wing and the 93rd Air Control Wing...[began] anew as the Air Force's first combined wing--the 116th Air Control Wing (ACW)--in a special activation ceremony attended by Air Force Secretary James Roche. This new ANG and active duty regular Air Force organization would be the first-ever blended, or one of a kind unit in the Air Force.