Air Force District of Washington

AFDW originates back to the post-World War II era when Bolling Field Command was established on 15 December 1946. Bolling Field Command absorbed functions from various support organizations in the Washington, D.C. vicinity.[4] It was redesignated Headquarters Command, USAF, on 17 March 1958. When Headquarters Command, USAF, inactivated on 1 July 1976, many of its functions passed to Military Airlift Command. The Air Force District of Washington was constituted and activated, on 1 October 1985. it was inactivated on 15 Jul 1994, due to declining defense budgets. AFDW was reactivated on 7 July 2005, to realign the Air Force command structure in the NCR with the other military services, improve Air Force support to Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region (JFHQ-NCR).

AFDW oversees two wings and one group on JBA-NAFW: the 11th Wing, the 79th Medical Wing and the 844th Communication Group. The 79th Medical Wing and 844th Communications Group both have specialized missions and serve as a single Air Force voice in the National Capital Region (NCR) for their respective fields of expertise. The 11th Wing fulfills duties as the host base organization of JBA-NAFW, while also supporting AFDW requirements. AFDW also supports airmen in more than 2,000 Air Force Elements in more than 500 locations in 108 countries.[5]

AFDW serves as the Air Force service component for coordination purposes to JFHQ-NCR and the supporting command to Joint Task Force-National Capital Region/Medical (JTF-CapMed). JFHQ-NCR has an emergency or major event operation 'mobilization' function as Joint Task Force-National Capital Region. When the JFHQ-NCR transitions to the Joint Task Force NCR (JTF-NCR), the 320th Air Expeditionary Wing (320 AEW) activates and becomes the Air Force service component of JTF-NCR. Normally, the Commander of AFDW serves as the Commander, 320 AEW. Air Force Mission Directive 13 delineates missions and assigned duties applicable to AFDW in both its worldwide Air Force service role and its JTF-NCR Air Force service component role.

AFDW oversees the following installations:

• Joint Base Andrews—Naval Air Facility Washington, Maryland—The 11th Wing, the 11th Medical Group (the former 79th Medical Wing), and 844th Communications Group
• Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling, District of Columbia—Support operations and USAF Honor Guard and USAF Band.
• The Pentagon—Support operations

Attribution:

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Air Force District of Washington.

• Official AFDW website