Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall visited the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing July 31, as part of a senior leader visit.
During his visit, Kendall was joined by U.S. Army Maj. Gen. R. Van McCarty, South Carolina National Guard adjutant general, U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Ferrario, 169th Fighter Wing commander and other senior leaders to discuss the unit's operational future.
Ferrario provided a mission brief detailing current initiatives, including training to agile combat employment concepts, and future plans to assess how they align with the direction the Air Force is moving in. Leaders around the table shared how the 169th FW is acting on Kendall's call lean forward into reoptimizing our forces to deter and, if necessary, defeat near-peer adversaries.
"The wing has successfully completed two agile combat employment exercises in 2024, Typhoon Fox and Caribbean Fox," Col. Ferrario explained. "These exercises tested our ability to train and deploy mission ready Airmen in a challenging environment with limited resources, and to assess their effectiveness in carrying out mission-critical tasks while employing combat airpower to deter and defeat the highest level of adversary capabilities."
The conversation also included a review of the 169th FW's recent expeditionary air base deployment. This discussion, led by U.S. Air Force Col. Jim Roth, South Carolina National Guard director of strategic plans, focused on successes and areas for improvement for future XAB deployments.
Before departing McEntire JNGB, Kendall spoke with Airmen during an all-call and emphasized the importance of employing an agile, disciplined and mission-capable force, and the 169th FW's impact on Air Combat Command and maintaining aerial dominance.
"Meeting Airmen and Guardians is one of my favorite parts of serving as the secretary," Kendall said. "Spending time with the Air Guardsmen of the 169th was special-I am proud to have you be a part of the Total Force and I appreciate everything you do."
After making comments and answering several questions from the audience, the official party departed McEntire JNGB for their next engagement.
"It was an incredible honor to have Secretary Kendall visit the 169th Fighter Wing," Ferrario said. "We are grateful Secretary Kendall was able to meet with our Airmen to witness firsthand their commitment to maintaining combat readiness and executing our homeland defense mission every day."
The mission of the 169th FW is to deploy mission ready Airmen and F-16 Fighting Falcons to support national security, homeland defense and state of South Carolina objectives.
