Honorary Commanders tour 16th Mission Support Group

  • Published
  • By Amy Oliver
  • 16th SOW Public Affairs
The 16th Special Operations Wing’s honorary commanders toured the 16th Mission Support Group May 11th.

The tour was part of the honorary commander program’s plan to spotlight one of the 16th SOW’s four groups each quarter.

With the vast and various missions performed by the 16th MSG, it was difficult to narrow down the facilities they would have time to see in a one-day time frame.

To kick off the day, they received a 16th MSG mission briefing which outlined each of the squadrons’ various missions.
The group visited the 16th Civil Engineering Squadron’s Explosive Ordnance
Disposal unit, which demonstrated some of the techniques they use to determine whether suspicious packages are dangerous. The fire and emergency services flight demonstrated training techniques employed as they extinguished an aircraft fire at the live-fire training site.

The 16th Mission Support Squadron introduced the group to the family support center and the programs available to help the Airmen and their families. Their briefing sparked an interest with Tony Hughes, president of Beach Community

Bank and 16th SOW honorary commander.
“The community wants to help the troops,” said Tony Hughes, who is also a member of the Navarre and Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Councils. “We just need to know where you need help and how we can help.”

After the group enjoyed lunch at the 16th Services Squadron’s Riptide dining facility, they toured the Riptide Fitness Center and the new 4 + 1 dormitory.

The 16th Logistics Readiness Squadron showed the group how they process troops through the deployment line at the deployment control center, and the 16th Security Forces Squadron’s Combat Arms Training unit demonstrated the capabilities of the types of weapons they use.

“We could spend a week showing them all of the missions performed by the 16th MSG,” said Col. Skip Day, 16th MSG commander. “I think this tour represented a good cross-section of the 16th MSG. It gave our honorary commanders an idea of the vast number of jobs we perform everyday supporting the mission of the 16th SOW and Hurlburt Field.”