2006 WVNG Annual Report PDF - West Virginia Army National Guard

West Virginia National Guard Annual Report 2006130 th Airlift WingIn 2006, the 968 men and women of the 130th Airlift Wing fulfilled their role of providingcontinuous airlift support worldwide, anytime, anywhere. The 130th AW located at YeagerAirport in Charleston is tasked with federal and state missions and successfully accomplishedeach tasking this year. The wing overcame a year of transition and saw the final upgrade of theC-130 fleet from the H-2 Model aircraft to the newly assigned C-130H-3 aircraft, the last ofwhich arrived in February. Although many members of the wing were deployed into harm's wayduring 2006, the year was heavily focused on training to maintain mission readiness with eightC-130 aircraft, in addition to the wing's many diverse ground support roles.The 130th Airlift Wing is organizedinto four groups: Operations Group, MissionSupport Group, Maintenance Group,and Medical Group, in addition to the WingStaff. Each group works toward providingworldwide deployment capabilities wheneverneeded to meet a variety of missiontaskings.Operational Missions: The 130thAirlift Wing began the year providing airliftsupport for the West Virginia Army Guard.The 130th transported over 100 WestVirginia Army Guardsmen to Wyoming forpre-deployment training prior to their departurefor the war in Iraq. The Wing alsoairlifted a number of West Virginia airmenon space available flights to training basesacross the country.In January, Air Force Special OperationsCommand (AFSOC) completed thefinal transfer of command on three of theunit's C-130H-2 aircraft. These aircraftwere assigned to the unit since their productionroll out and served the Wing during two major Gulf War deployments. The Wing relinquishedthese aircraft to transition to the newer C-130H-3 aircraft that arrived from the 167thAirlift Wing in Martinsburg. The Wing flew both models of the C-130 for nearly a year andmaintained dual qualifications on both series of aircraft.Unit members from across the base continued to deploy in support of the Global Waron Terrorism, returning home from hostile assignments throughout the year. Of the first to returnwere 15 Aerial Port personnel who were deployed in 2005 and returned home after theirsquadron's partial mobilization to South West Asia ended. These members were partiallymobilized for a one year tour in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM in Afghanistan.14