The Air Force activated its first unit dedicated solely to training the service’s ground component on Thursday. The Battlefield Airmen Training Group at JB San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, will be composed of five new training squadrons that will be activated later this summer and streamline training for the service’s ground forces—combat controllers, pararescuemen, special operations weathermen, and tactical air control party airmen, according to a June 2 release. It is a subordinate unit of the 37th Training Wing and replaces the 342nd Training Squadron. The replacement of the the 342nd comes after its commander, Lt. Col. William Schroeder, was killed by a student in an April murder-suicide. The new group will be spread across eight squadrons and detachments in seven different states. Col. Ronald Stenger, the inaugural commander of the BATG, said the creation of the unit allows “battlefield airmen leaders to lead battlefield airmen training across the entire enterprise,” according to the release.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.