AIR FORCE WELCOMES NEW SPACE WING

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 5, 2008 | by TOM ROEDER

A new Air Force Reserve unit for space was officially welcomed to Colorado Springs on Friday, marking the culmination of a 15-year effort to add parttime space troops to the service.

The 310th Space Wing has 700 reserve airmen in the area and will grow to as many as 900 in the next two years. The unit's squadrons mirror active duty units at Peterson, Schriever and Buckley Air Force bases and will help control military satellites on orbit.

"It's a very big deal to us," Lt. Gen. John Bradley, chief of the Air Force Reserve, said after the wing's flag was unfurled before scores of airmen in an aircraft hangar at Peterson. "We are very proud."

The wing is composed of 16 smaller units that specialize in duties from aerospace medicine to testing new space systems.

The wing's founding in Colorado Springs is a sign of the civilian industry that's been built up in Colorado since the '50s to support Air Force space programs.

Col. Jeffrey Ansted, the wing's commander, said the high-tech companies provide a wealth of recruits for the unit and give jobs to the part-time airmen.

"Colorado Springs is the center of space operations, and having a reserve wing here is indicative of the quality of people we get here," Ansted said.

A reserve unit specializing in space duties is attractive for the Air Force because it provides a pool of people who can be called to fill in roles for active duty or provide extra muscle in an emergency.

Many of the airmen in the 310th work in the civilian world on developing or maintaining the satellite systems they fly on the weekends for the reserve. Commanders have said that experience often makes the reservists trusted experts.

The wing also has some unique duties not found in the active- duty Air Force.

Its 6th Space Operations Squadron is the only unit that supports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in flying weather satellites.

Bradley told the airmen that their contributions in space are felt on the ground in fields from communications to navigation. "The work that you do helps the entire world," he said.