81st Training Wing

The 81st Training Wing (81 TRW) is a wing of the United States Air Force and the host wing at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. The 81st Training Wing has the Air Force’s largest Technical Training Group and trains more than 40,000 students annually. Training includes weather, basic electronics, communications electronic systems, communications computer systems, air traffic control, airfield management, command post, air weapons control, precision measurement, education and training, financial management and comptroller, information management, manpower and personnel, radar, ground radio, and network control.

Mission

Units

History

Established as 81st Fighter Wing on 15 April 1948 and activated on 1 May at Wheeler AFB, Hawaii Territory under the Hobson Plan. The 81st FW commanded the functions of both the support groups as well as the flying combat 81st Fighter Group and the squadrons assigned to it.

The 81st Fighter Wing conducted air defense of Hawaii, December 1948 – May 1949 when operations at Wheeler were curtailed, the 81st being transferred to the Tactical Air Command Twelfth Air Force and being stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.

34th Training Wing

The 34th Training Wing is a wing of the United States Air Force based at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The commander of the 34th Training Wing is "dual-hatted" as the Commandant of Cadets at the Academy.

The wing was first activated in 1941 as the 34th Bombardment Group. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the group briefly participated in antisubmarine patrols. During most of 1942 and 1943, the group acted as a heavy bomber training unit. In early 1944, the unit began preparations to move overseas. It served with Eighth Air Force in England, from April 1944 until the end of the war, converting form the Consolidated B-24 Liberator to the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in the middle of combat operations. It returned to the United States after VE Day and was inactivated in August 1945.

The 34th Tactical Group was activated in the early days of American participation in the Vietnam War. It trained Republic of Vietnam Air Force airmen and engaged in combat operations and the operational testing of weapons and munitions until 1965, when the increasing American involvement in Vietnam caused it to be replaced by the larger 6251st Tactical Fighter Wing.

37th Training Wing

The 37th Training Wing (37 TRW) is a unit of the United States Air Force assigned to the 2nd Air Force and the Air Education and Training Command. As the host unit to Lackland Air Force Base, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, the 37th TRW is the predominate unit on the installation and is the largest training wing in the USAF. Known as the "Gateway to the Air Force", the 37th Training Wing's replaced the Lackland Training Center as the single basic military training for the USAF.

At the same time, the 37th TRW also conducts technical training for the USAF's medics, security forces, logistics, and professional military education and hosts the English component (DLIELC) of the Defense Language Institute. Its four primary training functions graduate more than 85,000 students annually. As of June 2014, Brig. Gen. Trent H. Edwards is the commander of the 37th Training Wing.

Units

The 37th Training Wing consists of five training groups and graduates more than 80,000 students annually. These five missions include basic military training of all enlisted recruits entering the Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard; technical training encompassing hundreds of courses for a wide array of career fields and functions; Nursing and Health Services Admin officer courses and enlisted medical courses; English language training for international military personnel attending the Defense Language Institute; and specialized maintenance and security training as well as the International Squadron Officer School and International Non-Commissioned Officer Academy conducted in Spanish by active-duty Airmen for Latin American students attending the Inter-American Air Forces Academy.