Before assuming host duties at JB MDL in 2009, the wing had been active as an Air Force Reserve troop carrier wing during the Korean War. It was inactivated less than a year after it was formed, when the 434th Troop Carrier Wing was released from active duty and assumed the 87th Wing's personnel and equipment.
The 87th Mission Support Group supports the wing mission by maintaining an expeditionary force posture. In garrison, the group prepares the wing to deploy, bed down and sustain forward operations. At JB MDL and in deployed locations the group provides facilities, services, logistics management, contracting, force protection, fire protection, crisis action planning and response, communications, passenger and cargo movement, and personnel management.[3]
Components
87th Communications Squadron
87th Contracting Squadron
87th Logistics Readiness Squadron
87th Security Forces Squadron
87th Force Support Squadron[4] 3 March 2009 – present[5]
87th Medical Group
The 400-member 87th Medical Group operates a multi-specialty outpatient clinic. Its mission is to train mission-ready medics, deliver a medically ready operational force and ensure a healthy base community. The group prepares service members to serve at their home station and on deployment, while meeting healthcare needs of nearly 17,000 Tricare Prime enrollees and over 42,000 DoD beneficiaries.[6]
All Air Force Reserve combat flying organizations were mobilized for the Korean War.[7] The mobilization left the reserve without aircraft, and the reserve units did not receive aircraft until July 1952.[8] In preparation for the return of reserve flying operations, the Air Force activated the 87th Troop Carrier Wing at Atterbury Air Force Base, where it absorbed the personnel of the 923d Reserve Training Wing. The wing began to train for troop carrier operations, primarily with Curtiss C-46 Commandos, under the supervision of the 2466th Air Force Reserve Training Center. The wing also flew a number of other aircraft possessed by the center.[1]
In early 1953, the 434th Troop Carrier Wing, which had been the reserve flying wing at Atterbury until called to active duty in May 1951, was released from active duty and returned to the reserve. The 87th Wing was inactivated and transferred its mission, equipment and personnel to the 434th Wing.[1][9]
Multiservice base support
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended the combination of facilities of different armed services that were close to one another. As a result, Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst was established in central New Jersey from the former McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst. The Air Force was designated the lead service for support activities at the new base and organized the 87th Air Base Wing to carry out the mission.[4] The wing's cadre was taken from the mission support and medical groups of the 305th Air Mobility Wing, which retained its operations group and became a tenant organization.
In addition to its two groups and one squadron, the wing has 14 staff agencies.[note 1] Although the wing commander is an Air Force officer, its command structure includes an Army Joint Base Deputy Commander and a Navy Joint Base Deputy Commander.[4]
^Wing staff agencies include Air Forces Smart Operations for the 21st Century (AFSO 21), Business Office, Chaplains, Community Support Coordinator, Command Post, Equal Opportunity, History Office, Inspector General, Legal Office, Plans and Programs, Public Affairs, Safety, and Sexual Assault Response and Prevention.
