Air Force Reserve to form associate unit at Eglin

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WASHINGTON (AFNEWS) --  As part of Air Force total force integration initiatives, the Air Force Reserve Command is teaming up with Air Combat Command to establish an associate unit at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The process is tentatively scheduled to start in fiscal 2008.

Plans propose support of the 53rd Wing and its test and weapons evaluation missions, said Reserve officials, adding the relationship could expand in the future to include other, Eglin-based organizations.

"The associate unit program begun in 1968 has served the Air Force and the Air Force Reserve well over the years," said Lt. Gen. John A. Bradley, chief of Air Force Reserve and commander of Air Force Reserve Command.

"Under the classic associate structure, our reservists operate and maintain equipment with their active-duty counterparts," said General Bradley. "This approach has been so successful in recent years that the active Air Force has begun forming active associate units in partnership with unit-equipped Reserve organizations. By sharing equipment, we are able to train more people and make better use of the equipment."

General Bradley said associate units also make good business sense because they capitalize on the experience and skills of reservists, many of whom were on active duty before joining the Air Force Reserve.

"Through the associate unit programs, that training investment can be multiplied over and over as people come and go in a unit," the general said.

The development of ACC-gained Reserve associate units began in March 1996 with the activation of the Reserve's 513th Air Control Group and its 970th Airborne Air Control Squadron as associate units to ACC's 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker AFB, Okla.

Twelve months later the Reserve launched the Fighter Reserve Associate Test program, which involved a dozen reservists working with the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw AFB, S.C., as part of a FRAT detachment. The success of that program led to the signing of an agreement in April 2003 by the commanders of ACC and AFRC to establish associate units at ACC F-16 and F-15 bases, including a second unit at Shaw AFB.

Under the classic associate concept, the active-duty unit will retain principal responsibility for its equipment and the Reserve unit will share in operating and maintaining it.

(Courtesy Air Force Reserve Command News Service)

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