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 Its F-4 Phantom II aircraft flew thousands of combat missions between 1965 and 1971, before being withdrawn from combat as part of the United States drawdown of forces in Southeast Asia.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:
“And now for something completely different.”
—Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Catch-phrase, in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (TV series)
“When a man goes through six years’ training to be a doctor he will never be the same. He knows too much.”
—Enid Bagnold (1889–1981)
“Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)