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Milwaukee reserve unit begins move to North Carolina

  • Published
GENERAL MITCHELL AIR RESERVE STATION, Milwaukee --  The timeline for the permanent transfer of the 440th Airlift Wing to Pope Air Force Base, N.C., and the closure of General Mitchell International Airport – Air Reserve Station has been released. The 440th Airlift Wing will be a North Carolina Air Force Reserve unit by May 2007 and the Air Reserve Station, located at 300 E. College Ave., will close by February 2008. 

The transfer of the 440th and closure of the Air Reserve Station are two of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission decisions that became law in November 2005.

The first official transfers of wing personnel will be in early August 2006 when 13 members of the 440th will set up operations at Pope as Detachment 1, 440th Airlift Wing. They will be the planners and coordinators for all the subsequent moves of people and equipment to North Carolina. 

The movement plan that was released today calls for the main body of the wing (about 200 full-time flying operations and aircraft maintenance specialists) to be at Pope AFB by May 1, 2007. The command element of the 440th will transfer to Pope between May and July of 2007. 

When that movement is complete the 440th will be considered officially transferred to Pope AFB. The elements of the wing that will still be in Milwaukee will become a subordinate detachment of the wing until the Air Reserve Station is closed. All eight of the unit’s C-130 Hercules transport planes will be moved during the month of August 2007. They should all be in place by Sept. 1, 2007. 

Unit training weekends for the transplanted 440th will begin in North Carolina in May 2007. Local training weekends will continue to be held at General Mitchell Air Reserve Station through September 2007. The only parts of the 440th left in Milwaukee by October 2007 will be those engaged in closing the Air Reserve Station. 

The 440th has been primarily made up of citizens from Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan while it has been based in Milwaukee. The 440th has been flying from General Mitchell Airport since it moved here from Minneapolis in 1957. Air Force Reserve units with different missions have been based at the Milwaukee Airport since 1952. 

General Mitchell Air Reserve Station is 102 acres of federally owned land on the southwest corner of the General Mitchell International Airport complex. Once the 440th has been completely moved to Pope AFB the disposition of the property will be handled by the Air Force Real Property Agency in Washington, D.C. (AFRC News Service)