The 36th Rescue Flight at Fairchild AFB, Wash., transferred from under the organizational control of the base’s 336th Training Group to the 58th Operations Group at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Despite the shift, the training flight’s mission of providing helicopter support to the Air Force Survival School at Fairchild will not change, said officials in Fairchild’s June 13 release. “I am confident that this transfer of authority will be transparent to the members of the 336th TRG and the 36th RQF as well as the students that we train and support,” said Col. William Thomas, 336th TRG commander. The Fairchild group is the Air Force’s sole unit responsible for training survival, evasion, resistance, escape, or SERE, specialists. “The change was basically a cost-saving measure,” said Maj. Matthew Johnson, 36th RQF commander. He added, “The 36th RQF has proven itself indispensable to the survival school mission and will continue to do so in the future.” The transfer-of-authority ceremony was on June 7. (Fairchild report by SrA. Benjamin Stratton)
President Donald Trump on July 4 signed into law $150 billion in defense funds as part of the tax-and-spending package known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” after congressional Republicans approved the legislation in narrow, drawn-out votes earlier this week.
