TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- We are definitely better today than we were yesterday and tomorrow we will be better than we are today.
This is the mantra of Team Tyndall as we continue to recover and repair our base. On Friday, November 2, the Secretary of the Air Force made an important announcement about our base. She announced the specific units that will continue operations at Tyndall as well as the units that have insufficient infrastructure to resume their missions at Tyndall and where they will go for now.
Units that will resume operations at Tyndall AFB:
• The 601st Air Force Operations Center will resume operations no later than January 1, 2019.
• The 337th Air Control Squadron will resume air battle manager training at a reduced rate by January 1, 2019. A full production rate is expected not later than summer 2019.
• Air Force Medical Agency Support team will continue their mission of medical facility oversight.
• Air Force Office of Special Investigations will continue their mission from usable facilities.
• 53rd Air-to-Air Weapons Evaluation Group will remain at Tyndall Air Force Base.
• The Air Force Legal Operations Agency will continue their mission from a useable facility at Tyndall.
• Air Force recruiters will continue their mission from local area offices in the Panama City, Florida, area.
• The 823rd Red Horse Squadron, Detachment 1, will continue their mission at Tyndall.
• The Air Force Civil Engineer Center will continue their mission at Tyndall.
Units to be located at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, with reachback to Tyndall:
• The 43rd and 2nd Fighter Squadrons’ F-22 Fighter Training and T-38 Adversary Training Units will relocate operations to Eglin AFB. Academic and simulator facilities at Tyndall will be used to support training requirements, as well as Tyndall’s surviving Low Observable maintenance facilities.
• The 372rd Training Squadron, Detachment 4, will relocate with the F-22 Fighter Training Units to Eglin AFB.
Units with insufficient infrastructure to resume operations at Tyndall AFB at this time:
• Personnel and F-22s from the 95th Fighter Squadron will relocate to Langley AFB, Virginia; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
• The Noncommissioned Officer Academy will temporarily disperse across four locations: McGhee-Tyson, Tennessee; Maxwell Air Force Base - Gunter Annex, Alabama; Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi; and Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.
With this announcement, I know there are many questions regarding assignments and timeframes for returning to work. We are working each day with our team of experts and your squadron commanders to provide you those answers. We will meet Gen Goldfein’s goal of ensuring our Airmen (military and civilian) are on a path or deliberately settled by the winter holidays.
While the Air Force has committed $100 million dollars to repairing and recovering Tyndall, our Airmen and mission partners are the key to recovering our base. In the past week, we have finished our initial structure assessment, started mold remediation in high priority buildings, completed street debris removal in housing, and many other tasks. Our base looks better every day, and many workspaces will be ready for you to return in a limited capacity. Your commanders are helping us build our phased reconstitution plan and timeline.
As we continue with this process, you remain my first priority. Know that you are forefront in my mind as our team supports the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s decisions and we look forward to our future.
We’re Airmen. We’ve got this.
v/r
Col Brian S. Laidlaw
325th Fighter Wing Commander