917th Fighter Group to get commander

By John Andrew Prime
The Shreveport Times
May 31, 2011

The newly designated 917th Fighter Group at Barksdale Air Force Base, created from the 917th Wing when the Air Force Reserve parent unit became the bombers-only 307th Bomb Wing earlier this year, will get a commander soon.

In a 1 p.m. ceremony June 10 in the group's A-10 hangar, Lt. Col. John Breazeale will pin on the insignia of a full colonel and assume command of the fighter unit.

Breazeale currently is commander of the 84th Test and Evaluation Squadron, part of the 926th Group, a reserve associate unit with 53rd Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. He was commissioned in 1988 after graduation as a distinguished graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy where he earned a BS degree in Electrical Engineering. He began his Air Force career in June 1988 as a pilot training student at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, and moved to the Air Force Reserve in May 2002. He established the 84th TES at Eglin in September 2007.

A command pilot, he has more than 4,000 flying hours in the F-16 Fighting Falcon and A-10 Thunderbolt II fighters.

While its airplanes, crews and support personnel are at Barksdale, the 917th Fighter Group and its 47th Fighter Squadron now are components of the 442nd Fighter Wing headquartered at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.

The presiding officer will be Col. Eric S. Overturf, 442nd Fighter Wing commander. Dress is military uniform of the day and business casual for civilians. The event is open to invited guests, and military, their dependants and guests.

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