BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --
The 117th Air Refueling Wing Historical Committee is a new organization that is aiming to educate all Airmen across the 117th about the history of the Wing and protecting our history. Master Sgt. Chad Carroll, a logistics planner with the 117th Logistics Readiness Squadron, is currently serving as the director of the committee.
“The goal of the Historical Committee is to protect and preserve the history of the 117th Air Refueling Wing, all of its archives, pictures and videos that we have," said Carroll. “There are a lot of things on this base that people don’t know of. We want to show that to the base and also the younger Airmen.”
Carroll stated that a lot of the younger Airmen are only familiar with the KC-135 Stratotankers that currently reside at the 117th, but the Historical Committee wants to show them the rich history of the Wing since its start over 100 years ago.
“This has been a topic of discussion for a few years between a lot of the older Airmen here, all the ones that are starting to retire. They are wanting to protect that history,” Carroll said. “It has been a topic for a while, but then this past year it started getting some traction and leadership has stood up the Historical Committee to make sure that we preserve and protect that history.”
Carroll said that if anyone has anything unique about the Wing or anything from home that would spark interest for the Historical Committee, to please bring it to them and let them look at it. A future goal is to have a representative from each squadron or group to act as a point of contact to help track what is going on, collect data, and to bring that information to the committee.
“We may not know what it is, but we have a lot of retirees that would love to come back and get involved to help us identify what it is,” said Carroll. “If it is a picture, program or a book, what it is and what time frame it is from.”
Anyone interested in joining, contact the 117th Historical Committee at 117ARW.Historical.Committee@us.af.mil