Lt. Gen. Bradley A. Heithold, commander of Air Force Special Operations, and commanders from the 352nd Special Operations Wing stand for the opening of an activation ceremony at RAF Mildenhall, England, on Monday, March 23, 2015. The ceremony marked the deactivation of the 352nd Special Operations Group and its subsequent reactivation as a wing. Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Lt. Gen. Bradley A. Heithold, commander of Air Force Special Operations, and commanders from the 352nd Special Operations Wing stand for the opening of an activation ceremony at RAF Mildenhall, England, on Monday, March 23, 2015. The ceremony marked the deactivation of the 352nd Special Operations Group and its subsequent reactivation as a wing. Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Lt. Gen. Bradley A. Heithold, commander of Air Force Special Operations, members of the audience salute during the opening of an activation ceremony at RAF Mildenhall, England, on Monday, March 23, 2015. The ceremony marked the deactivation of the 352nd Special Operations Group and its subsequent reactivation as a wing. Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Lt. Gen. Bradley A. Heithold, commander of Air Force Special Operations, left, and Col. William G. Holt II, center, oversee the unfurlling of the 352nd Special Operations Wing flag, while Col. Nathan C. Green retires the 352nd Special Operations Group flag at RAF Mildenhall, England, on Monday, March 23, 2015. The 352nd has grown in the past few years from about 600 to about 1,200 airmen. Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Col. William G. Holt II, commander of the 352nd Special Operations Wing, left, passes the flag for the 752nd Special Operations Group to Col. Nathan C. Green during an activation ceremony at RAF Mildenhall, England, on Monday, March 23, 2015. The ceremony marked the transformation of the 352nd Special Operations into a wing. Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Col. Eric V. Faison speaks after accepting command of the 352nd Special Operations Maintenance Group at RAF Mildenhall, England, on Monday, March 23, 2015. The 352nd Special Operations Wing is set to move to Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, in the next few years. Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
RAF MILDENHALL, England — U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command marked a doubling of its personnel and the revamping of its fleet in Europe here on Monday by redesignating the 352nd Special Operations Group as a wing.
The ceremony provided some publicity for a unit that often shuns the spotlight. The head of Air Force Special Operations Command, Lt. Gen. Bradley A. Heithold, said changing the 352nd into a wing reflected the unit’s new size and the jobs it has to do in Europe and the U.S. Central Command region.
“We also support (Special Operations Command Africa), and the challenges you see and the struggle we have against violent extremism,” Heithold said during the ceremony. “And that ain’t going away anytime soon.”
Briefly mentioned during the ceremony was the unit’s operations during the past nine months, which reflect U.S. security and strategic concerns. Col. Nathan C. Green, commander of one of the 352nd’s subordinate units, the 752nd Special Operations Group, said the unit has supported operations in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Libya, and other countries. It currently has airmen on battlefields in Europe, Africa and the CENTCOM region.
The 352nd will participate in the NATO Response Force for 2016, officials said. The alliance last year decided to increase the size of the response force to about 30,000 troops by adding a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. Made up of some 5,000 troops, including special operations personnel, “it will be able to deploy at very short notice, particularly on the periphery of NATO’s territory,” NATO said in a news release last month.
The upgrade to wing status will be reflected in the 352nd’s size. Heithold said the unit, which currently has about 1,200 personnel, will eventually increase to about 1,500.
In recent years, the 352nd fleet has been expanded and modernized. The Air Force gave the unit CV-22 Ospreys starting in 2013 as a way to restore its vertical lift capability, lost when it shed a helicopter squadron in 2008. Green said the 352nd currently has three Ospreys in the Horn of Africa on a “semipermanent basis.”
The Air Force also updated the unit’s fixed-wing aircraft by providing MC-130J Commando IIs, which can refuel rotary aircraft in midair, as a replacement for its aging MC-130P Combat Shadows.
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