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Change of command for 19th Air Force set for June 13

  • Published
  • Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas --  

Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Doherty will pass the 19th Air Force guidon to Maj. Gen. Craig D. Wills during a change of command ceremony 10 a.m., June 13, JBSA-Randolph’s Hangar 4.

 

Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast, commander of Air Education and Training Command, is the presiding official for the ceremony. Tracing its lineage back to 1955, 19th Air Force is set to welcome its’ 24th commander.

 

Prior to this assignment, Maj. Gen. Wills was the deputy chief for the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq. He commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is a command pilot with more than 2,500 hours of flying time, primarily in the F-15C and F15E, and has previously commanded at the squadron, group and wing levels, both nationally and internationally.

 

Members of 19th Air Force are responsible for the training and education of more than 32,000 U.S. and allied students annually in numerous specialties ranging from aircrew, remotely piloted aircraft crew, air battle manager, weapons director, and survival, escape, resistance and evasion. Members at 19th AF are also responsible for Air Force Academy Airmanship programs. This numbered Air Force unit is comprised of 19 training locations across the U.S. with 17 Total Force wings, including 10 active duty, one Air Force Reserve and five Air National Guard organizations. Together, the 19th Air Force operates more than 1,600 aircraft from 29 different aircraft models. It oversees 45 percent of the Air Force’s annual flying hour program.

 

Doherty has been the 19th Air Force commander since March 2017. He is headed to his next assignment as Director, Plans, Programs, and Requirements, Headquarters Air Combat Command, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, VA.

 

Media interested in attending the ceremony should contact Major Kim Garbett at (210) 652-3964/4400 or kimberly.garbett@us.af.mil, no later than 3 p.m., Wednesday, June 12. Those attending should arrive at the JBSA-Randolph Main Gate Visitors’ Center (Pat Booker Road and FM 78) no later than 9:15 a.m. to be escorted to the ceremony.

 

For more AETC Press Products, please go to: http://www.aetc.af.mil/MediaRoom.aspx