HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Approximately 350 Airmen and 12 A-10 Thunderbolt II aircrafts from Selfridge Air National Guard Base have deployed to Southwest Asia in support for six months to help combat efforts to fight ISIS.
The Selfridge Airmen deployed earlier this month and are now on station and engaged in daily missions as part of OIR, said Brig. Gen. John D. Slocum, 127th Wing commander at Selfridge.
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The deployed Airmen are all members of the Air National Guard. Deployed units include the 107th Fighter Squadron, the 127th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, the 127th Maintenance Squadron and the 127th Operations Support Squadron. A few Airmen from other squadrons are also on the deployment. All of the units involved are components of the 127th Wing.
This deployment is the longest, large-scale deployment of Selfridge Airmen since the Selfridge A-10s and related Airmen deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in late 2011-early 2012. Additional deployments of Selfridge Airmen and KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft are planned for later this year. In total, more than 500 Selfridge Airmen are expected to deploy to operations in 2015 - about double the number of each of the past two years.
While deployed the Michigan units will be assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing. Family, friends and supporters of the deployed Airmen may wish to follow the 386th at http://www.afcent.af.mil/Units/386thAirExpeditionaryWing.aspx or https://www.facebook.com/386thAEW.
(U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. David Kujawa)
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