Altus slated to receive Reserve squadron Published April 24, 2009 By Senior Airman Clinton Atkins 97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFNS) -- Top military and government officials announced recently a Reserve squadron will join units here. The addition will boost aircrew training for the KC-135 Stratotanker, C-17 Globemaster III and the eventual KC-X. The change will take place in fiscal 2010. "We have the opportunity to take some of the most experienced aviators in the mobility world and bring them here to Altus, and that supports the goal of the highest quality training that we can provide for our Airmen," said Col. David Allvin, 97th Air Mobility Wing commander. "There is a tremendous amount of experience in the Guard and Reserve and not to take advantage of that would be wrong, " Colonel Allvin said. "A couple of reasons why it's such a good idea is, first, we have more than 50 percent of the KC-135 students, and almost 50 percent of the C-17 students we train are in the Guard and Reserve," he said. "If you bring the best instructors in, who want to come to Altus and have a lot to provide to the total force, I think it really is a win-win situation. It makes great sense that we have Reserve instructors to give the flavor of what it will be like to our reservist students," he said. The process that began nearly two years ago is finally coming to fruition. "It took a lot of hard work to get to where we are today," the colonel said. "First we needed to get approval through our chain of command from the wing up to 19th Air Force and then through Air Education and Training Command," he said. "Once General Lorenz approved it to go forward, it entered a process with the Air Force Reserve Command. They needed to sort out how many billets would be required, what type of reservist would be required and to hammer out the details to see if it was feasible. Once all of those ducks lined up in a row it became clear to all that this was going to happen." Though the actual size of the squadron is still undetermined, the unit will likely have a core of 10-15 active reservists. "That core will be the logistical, administrative and leadership support for all of the reservists that will be rotating through to do their instructor duty here at Altus AFB," Colonel Allvin said. Initially, the overall size of the squadron will be small so the 97th AMW is looking to house the unit in an already existing facility. "If the unit were to grow and expand then we'll have to look at getting a facility of their own or looking to put in a construction request for a stand-alone Reserve facility," he said. The new Reserve squadron may not have a large physical impact, but it will improve the base's diversity. "The way we are able to work together as a total force I think will translate here to the base," Colonel Allvin said. "I don't think you'll see much of a difference as far as the handling of the scheduling or the flying of the missions. " I think it's going to enrich our diversity by being able to have a total force presence here to expand our perspective beyond just the active-duty perspective," the colonel said. In addition to having a total force presence, having a Reserve squadron to handle some of the training burden will also reduce the total of active-duty instructors, which means those active-duty servicemembers will be filtered back into the operational units. "The ability to use total force here can relieve some of the operational wings of their stressed manpower situations," he said. Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link) View the comments/letters page