Ninth C-17 Arrival Ceremony

  • Published
  • By 349th AMW
  • Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Team Travis and invited guests welcome the arrival of the ninth of 13 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, Tuesday, March 6, 10 a.m., on the Travis Air Force Base flightline.
Brigadier General Frank J. Padilla is the Reserve mobilization assistant to the commander, Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Fla. The command is the Air Force component of U.S. Special Operations Command for worldwide deployment and assignment to unified combatant commanders. The command has approximately 12,900 active-duty, Reserve, Air National Guard and civilian professionals. As mobilization assistant to the commander, General Padilla is the senior Air Reserve Component officer responsible for leadership and liaison for all Air Force Reserve and Guard personnel gained by AFSOC. In addition, he provides oversight and policy guidance to approximately 162 individual mobilization augmentees assigned to AFSOC.
Accompanying him will be three other pilots, Major Dennis Wolfe, Major Rick Tubbs, Captain Alexander Salogub and three loadmasters, Senior Master Sergeant Charles Speir, Technical Sergeant Steven Chick and Senior Airman Jamesearl Moore, all reserve members of the 301st Airlift Squadron, a unit of the 349th Air Mobility Wing, the largest Reserve Associate wing in the nation.
The C-17, the Air Force's premier airlifter, entered the airlift force in 1991. Travis will receive 13 C-17 Globemaster IIIs by the end of 2007. Travis Air Force Base is the only Air Mobility Command base to have three weapon systems, the C-17 Globemaster III, KC-10 Extender and C-5 Galaxy.