Warrior of the North, your hard work continues to shine Published May 17, 2007 By Col. Diane Hull 319th Air Refueling Wing commander GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- It's been a busy spring for the Warriors of the North, yet busy times are when this wing shines the brightest. I'm proud to say that Grand Forks continues to be a beacon for excellence within Air Mobility Command and the Air Force. As you probably know, Friday, May 18, is a goal day for the wing. Your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed. I'd like to reflect on a few of the wing's positive achievements. Within the Mission Support Group, we saw the Services and Mission Support Squadrons morph together to form the new Mission and Services Support Squadron. The change has probably been unnoticeable to most people, but it took many people many hours to make that transition a smooth one. Within the MSSS, our Military Personnel Flight is tops in AMC and among the best in the whole Air Force for reporting local duty status information and Air and Space Expeditionary Force data. That's not an easy task, and I applaud them for their efforts. The Medical Group is consistently among the top AMC bases for Preventative Health Assessments and Individual Medical Readiness, which is everything an active duty Airman needs to be medically worldwide-qualified. At 88%, we're currently the number two base within AMC, well above the Air Force average of 84% and AMC average of 83%. Nice work! The Maintenance Group continues to work magic on our birds. Between Middle East summers and Grand Forks winters, these KC-135s have just about seen it all, but our dedicated maintenance team keeps the mission airborne. Our mission capability rate was 85.5% in March and 84.8% in April, both above AMC's average rate. In fact, there have only been two instances in the last 33 months where we've dipped below AMC's standards. Impressive! For the Operations Group, providing rapid and precise global air refueling capabilities to the warfighter is the name of the game. In terms of flying hours, the OG continues to widen the lead it has among KC-135 units. NKAWTG - that's what it's all about. As a wing, we absolutely knocked the socks off the Air Force Assistance Fund campaign, raising a whopping 125.3 percent of the wing's goal. Shortly after AFAF came to a close, we tackled an 8044 exercise and were able to benefit from that critical training. Now we're in the midst of another big round of deployments, doing our part to support operations around the globe. Every season seems to be "busy season" at Grand Forks AFB, yet we continue to outdo ourselves, proving once again that only the best come north. Thank you, Warriors of the North for your selfless service to our nation.