12th Flying Training Wing
The 12th Flying Training Wing (12 FTW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Education and Training Command, and formerly of the now inactivated Nineteenth Air Force. It is stationed at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. The wing is also the parent organization for the 479th Flying Training Group (479 FTG), a geographically separated unit (GSU) located at NAS Pensacola, Florida.
The 12 FTW is the only unit in the Air Force conducting both pilot instructor training and combat systems officer training. The Wing's predecessor unit, the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing fought in combat during the Vietnam War. It was the host unit at two major air bases in South Vietnam. Its F-4 Phantom II aircraft flew thousands of combat missions between 1965 and 1971, before being withdrawn from combat as part of the United States drawdown of forces in Southeast Asia. Its World War II predecessor unit, the 12th Bombardment Group as part of Twelfth Air Force supported the Allied drive from Egypt to Tunisia during the North Africa Campaign, then reassigned to Tenth Air Force in India and flew most of its missions in Burma between April 1944 and May 1945, supporting the British Fourteenth Army.
The commander of the 12th Flying Training Wing is Col Gerald V. Goodfellow. The Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant Avery V. Woolridge.
Famous quotes containing the words flying, training and/or wing:
“English literature is a flying fish.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Unfortunately, life may sometimes seem unfair to middle children, some of whom feel like an afterthought to a brilliant older sibling and unable to captivate the family’s attention like the darling baby. Yet the middle position offers great training for the real world of lowered expectations, negotiation, and compromise. Middle children who often must break the mold set by an older sibling may thereby learn to challenge family values and seek their own identity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“No Raven’s wing can stretch the flight so far
As the torn bandrols of Napoleon’s war.
Choose then your climate, fix your best abode,
He’ll make you deserts and he’ll bring you blood.
How could you fear a dearth? have not mankind,
Tho slain by millions, millions left behind?
Has not conscription still the power to weild
Her annual faulchion o’er the human field?
A faithful harvester!”
—Joel Barlow (1754–1812)