Talk:List of wings of the United States Air Force

Should the wings from AFMC that are strictly admin wings be added to the list. This is really a list of the combat wings (or at least wings with that are part of the combat structure). For this reason the Weather Wings from the 1960-70's were not included. Only wings that would meet the criteria of being AFCON (Air Force-controlled) establishments. The term AFCON applies to all those organizations under the direct control of Headquarters USAF for organizational actions. The Air Force reserved the numbers 1 through 999 for these permanent organizations, with the numbers 101 through 300 allotted to the Air National Guard. So, the ESC, AAC and other AFMC wings without numbers are not really wings for the purposes of this list. Chris

By that definition, the 11th Wing, Wilford Hall, the AF Academy, as well as most ABWs should also not be on this list as all of those Wings are "strictly admin wings". An ABW by definition is an administrative wing that usually only consists of a Mission Support Group and a Medical Group. The AFMC wings meet the AFCON definition since they are under direct control of HAF for organizational actions. All of those wings were stood up as establishments utilizing DAF letters and G-series orders as required by AFIs. The intent of the action was to redefine the Air Force Wing concept as more than just "combat structure". I was one of the Manpower Analysts involved in AFMC's standup of those Wings. Personally, I think the list shoudl be restricted to only active wings. I think the inclusion of inactivated wings can create confusion for non-AF civilians looking at this list for an overview of the Air Force. ELH50

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Thanks for the clarification on the admin wing point, but don't those wings have history in the combat organization of the USAF. If so, even though they are now "admin wings" they could be moved back to combat status - the 15th ABW is one example that I can think of.

As for the inactive wings - maybe break the list into active and inactive. Also maybe a list for the ANG wings since they are not USAF owned wings as I understand it. Chris

Some of the ABW's have a combat history--some go back to WW2--, some don't. I think the AFHRA has several on their website. I'll have to run this list by their site sometime. I know some wings have gone back and forth. I know when I left AFMC for USAFE they were still looking into numbering the Wings. Some at Hill, Eglin, and Edwards got numbered during the reorg. I believe they were looking at 500 series numbers, but I could be mistaken on that.

I like the idea of active, inactive, and guard lists. Would definitely be a good goal to work on here. The ownership of guard units has always been a sticky issue--look at the latest BRAC process.

I like your suggestions. Will play with them soon. Stay tuned...

ELH50

Maybe I'm missing something but what about the ANG 106th Rescue Wing on Long Island? Lamjus 02:13, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Maybe add the types of systems acquired for the AFMC units? 129.53.219.20 15:04, 22 October 2007 (UTC)