42d Air Base Wing
The 42d Air Base Wing (42 ABW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Education and Training Command Air University. It is stationed at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama. The wing is also the host unit at Maxwell-Gunter.
Its primary mission is to support all activities of Air University, which is stationed at Maxwell-Gunter.
Its World War II predecessor, the 42d Bombardment Group was a medium bomber unit, which saw combat in the Central and Southwest Pacific areas as part of Thirteenth Air Force. It was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for its pre-invasion bombing of Balikpapan, 23–30 June 1945. Active for over 50 years, the 42d Bombardment Wing was a component wing of Strategic Air Command's deterrent force during the Cold War, flying the B-36 Peacemaker and later B-52 Stratofortress.
The 42d Air Base Wing is commanded by Colonel Kris D. Beasley. Its Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant Mark Repp .
Famous quotes containing the words air, base and/or wing:
“A hook shot kisses the rim and
hangs there, helplessly, but doesn’t drop
and for once our gangly starting center
boxes out his man and times his jump
perfectly, gathering the orange leather
from the air like a cherished possession”
—Edward Hirsch (b. 1950)
“The base of all artistic genius is the power of conceiving humanity in a new, striking, rejoicing way, of putting a happy world of its own creation in place of the meaner world of common days, of generating around itself an atmosphere with a novel power of refraction, selecting, transforming, recombining the images it transmits, according to the choice of the imaginative intellect. In exercising this power, painting and poetry have a choice of subject almost unlimited.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“As if her velvet helmet high
Did turret rationality.
She fans her wing up to the winde
As if her Pettycoate were lin’de
With reasons fleece, and hoises saile
And humming flies in thankfull gaile”
—Edward Taylor (1645–1729)