349th Air Mobility Wing announces next commander

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Robert Couse-Baker
  • 349th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Col. Raymond A. Kozak has been selected to be next commander of the 349th Air Mobility Wing, Travis Air Force Base, Calif., the Air Force Reserve Command announced May 1, 2015. The change of command is set for Aug. 8, 2015.

Together with its active-duty partner, the 60th AMW, the 3,100 Airmen of the 349th AMW fly and maintain the C-5M Super Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III and KC-10A Extender. At any given time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, somewhere in the world, Reservists from the largest associate wing in the Air Force are performing the air mobility mission: delivering America's hope and might around the globe.

The colonel is currently the commander of the 512th Airlift Wing, a Reserve associate unit at Dover AFB, Del., which flies and maintains the C-5M and C-17.

Kozak is a command pilot with more than 6,000 flying hours and extensive experience in tanker and airlift operations. He served previously as the director of Air, Space and Information Operations, Headquarters Fourth Air Force, March Air Reserve Base, Calif.
Col. Matthew J. Burger, the current commander of the 349th AMW, will take his operational command experience to the Pentagon, and serve as the chief of the AFRC's Programs and Requirements Division. He will work with senior Air Force leadership to develop policy for resource allocation, programing and the combined Air Force Objective Memorandum and Budget Estimate Submission.

Kozak will become the 25th commander of the "Golden Gate Wing," which has served the nation in nearly every major humanitarian and combat operation since World War II. The wing's linage traces to the 349th Troop Carrier Group, a C-46 Commando transport unit activated in 1943 and assigned to the Army Air Forces' Ninth Air Force in the European Theater.