The 36th Operations Group at Anderson AFB, Guam, has just been reactivated to establish a permanent command structure for deployed Air Force units assigned there. Col. Damian J. McCarthy formally took command of the 36th OG during a ceremony inside the base’s Hangar One this week. McCarthy said that standup of the 36th OG, which is replacing the 36th Expeditionary Operations Group, will “provide greater stability and longer-range planning for our mission.” That mission is to oversee operations for bomber strike forces that now make regular rotations to the Pacific region.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
