12th Flying Training Wing


The 12th Flying Training Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Education and Training Command as part of AETC's Nineteenth Air Force. It is headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. The wing is also the parent organization for the 479th Flying Training Group, a geographically separated unit located at NAS Pensacola, Florida. The wing is also the parent organization for the 306th Flying Training Group, a geographically separated unit located at The United States Air Force Academy, Colorado. 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 and was the host unit at two major air bases in South Vietnam. Its McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft flew thousands of combat missions between 1965 and 1971 before being withdrawn as part of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and Southeast Asia.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 . The Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant Tony Goldstrom.

1990s

In 1992, due to the impending closure of Mather Air Force Base, California, the 12 FTW also assumed responsibility for Undergraduate Navigator Training and Interservice Undergraduate Navigator Training from the 323d Flying Training Wing at Mather when that organization inactivated, with most T-43A aircraft and some of the 323 FTW squadrons reforming at Randolph AFB under the 12 FTW. In 2009, with the transition of UNT to undergraduate Combat Systems Officer training and pursuant to earlier Base Realignment and Closure Commission |BRACdirectives, the 12 FTW established a new organization, the 479th Flying Training Group, with two new flying training squadrons and an operations support squadron, as a GSU at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Although NAS Pensacola is the principal base for student Naval Flight Officer training for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, the 479 FTG operates independently of this program with its own USAF T-6 Texan II and T-1 Jayhawk aircraft. Upon establishment of the 479 FTG at NAS Pensacola, the remaining "legacy" navigator training squadrons that had relocated from the former Mather AFB to Randolph AFB in 1992 were inactivated.

The 2010s

In the second decade of the 21st century, the wing's mission is to provide instructor pilot training in the Raytheon-Beech T-6A Texan II, the Northrop T-38 Talon and the Beech T-1A Jayhawk jet trainers. Previously, the wing also conducted Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals in the Northrop AT-38 Talon, a role now performed with T-38s.
Until late 2010, the wing also conducted Joint Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training and electronic warfare officer training in the T-1A Jayhawk and Boeing T-43A medium-range turbofan jet at Randolph AFB. With the retirement of the T-43 in September 2010, this training merged with extant USAF weapons systems officer training that had been conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida since 1990. The navigator, EWO and WSO training tracks were then merged and all three specialties became known as Combat Systems Officer. This updated CSO training is now conducted by the 479th Flying Training Group as a Geographically Separated Unit of the 12 FTW at NAS Pensacola utilizing T-6 Texan II and T-1A Jayhawk aircraft.
The wing is responsible for numerous aviation training programs. These programs include Pilot Instructor Training, Combat Systems Officer Training, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Pilot Indoctrination, Basic Sensor Operator Qualification, Airmanship programs for U.S. Air Force Academy cadets, and Introductory Flight Screening.

Units in the 2010s

The wing consists of three flying groups and a maintenance directorate spanning more than 1,600 miles from JBSA-Randolph, Texas to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, to Pueblo Memorial Airport and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
The 12th Operations Group controls all Instructor Pilot Training and airfield operations at Randolph AFB and Randolph AFB Auxiliary Field/Seguin Field.
The 479th Flying Training Group is a geographically separated unit located at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida and conducts Undergraduate Combat Systems Officer Training.
The 306th Flying Training Group is a geographically separated unit located at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado. The 306 FTG conducts powered flight training, soaring, and parachute training for Air Force Academy cadets.
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School