71st Flying Training Wing
The 71st Flying Training Wing (71 FTW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Education and Training Command Nineteenth Air Force. It is stationed at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma where it also is the host unit.
The mission of the Wing is threefold: Produce pilots for U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and allied nations as directed. Second, prepare forces to support mobility taskings and deploy when directed. Third, provide support to, and execute mission directives. The 71 FTW is the only Air Force unit to conduct joint specialized undergraduate pilot training for officers of the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and the air forces of several allied countries.
The unit has a long and decorated history. The group's World War II predecessor unit, the 71st Reconnaissance Group operated primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater flying reconnaissance missions. It was awarded the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for its role in the liberation of the Philippines during 1944-1945. During the Cold War, the 71st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (Fighter) was a part of Strategic Air Command. The wing performed strategic reconnaissance and also tested a technique for launching small RBF-84 aircraft from GRB-36 bombers to extend the range of photographic reconnaissance and fighter escort. The testing ended in 1956, but the wing continued strategic reconnaissance until inactivated on 1 July 1957.
Famous quotes containing the words flying, training and/or wing:
“What the hell is nostalgia doing in a science-fiction film? With the whole universe and all the future to play in, Lucas took his marvelous toys and crawled under the fringed cloth on the parlor table, back into a nice safe hideyhole, along with Flash Gordon and the Cowardly Lion and Luck Skywalker and the Flying Aces and the Hitler Jugend. If there’s a message there, I don’t think I want to hear it.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
“In Washington, success is just a training course for failure.”
—Simon Hoggart (b. 1946)
“Ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)