55th Wing, operations group welcomes new squadron

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Ken Scholz
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  More than 300 people celebrated the arrival of the 55th Wing's newest squadron, the 55th Intelligence Support Squadron, during an activation ceremony at the Patriot Club July 22.

"This is a little bit of a different day and ceremony, which few commanders get to experience," said Col. John Hansen, 55th Operations Group commander and the presiding official at the standing-room-only ceremony. "We are welcoming a new commander and a new squadron in a single ceremony."

Lt. Col. Jenifer Warren, new 55th ISS commander, expressed her gratitude to the people who worked to make the squadron activation a reality.

"We are about to embark upon an awesome endeavor," she said, "one that many people have already invested much time and effort into ... We owe it to them, future generations and ourselves to rise to this challenge. And I know that [these folks are] the right ones to do so."

"Lt. Col. Warren was rated number 1 of 149 field grade officers and 1 of 51 majors by the last two operations groups commanders," said Colonel Hansen. "Let there be no doubt, Lt. Col. Jenifer Warren earned the opportunity to be the first commander of the 55th ISS."

The 55th OG's 12th squadron will consolidate already existing support functions for intelligence operations, including communications support, intelligence systems maintenance, operations intelligence and logistics support. Production management will be a new support function introduced with the squadron, said Maj. Matthew Tracy, director of operations for the 55th ISS. Most of the others have existed in some form or another but needed better integration to be as useful as possible to the 55th OG.

"This is going to be a unique organization, with no other squadron in the Air Force bringing together these different functions under one commander," said Major Tracy. "We identified the need to consolidate intelligence support functions into one unit and then started pulling them from other squadrons, hopefully to get some synergy and better utilize these separate and distinct (jobs)."

The 55th Wing looks to benefit from more streamlined intelligence support for a very limited standup cost for the ISS.

While the squadron itself is new, it is formed almost entirely by using a combination of existing Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency and Air Combat Command resources. The synergy for operations group intelligence support activities is expected to come from the integration of previously disparate intelligence personnel, skills and training as well as better consolidation under one commander, according to the ISS organizational change request document.

"I think the idea of an ISS has been discussed for some time, but it's been about a year since we first put pen to paper to begin the real planning," said Major Tracy.

"We will set high standards, we will achieve them, we will make this squadron something to be proud of," said Colonel Warren. "Generations to come will be proud to say that they were members of the 55th ISS."

(SrA Danielle Grannan contributed to this report.)