to storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona on 20 August. Under the Air Force's Total Force Initiative as a "blended" wing, the former 93d Air Control Wing, an active-duty Air Combat Command unit, and the 116th Bomb Wing, a Georgia Air National Guard unit, were inactivated effective 1 October 2002. The 116th was immediately re-activated and redesignated as the 116th Air Control Wing. The 116th was a blend of active-duty and national guard airmen in a single unit. The wing was equipped with the new E-8C Joint STARS airborne battle management aircraft. Its mission is command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with ground surveillance to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the delay, disruption and destruction of enemy forces. The E-8C evolved from Army and Air Force programs to develop, detect, locate and attack enemy armor at ranges beyond the forward area of troops. In 2006, the National Guard Bureau conducted a facility assessment and determined that the 116th CES was residing in the second worst engineering compound in the Air National Guard. This led to another building being identified for the squadron's new compound, and funding being appropriated for a concept study on how to adapt the facility for CES' needs. In April 2010, The 116th Air Control Wing became the first ever Georgia Air National Guard unit to send a team to the Mountain Man Memorial March, held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to honor those who have fallen in combat. The wing team sponsored Capt Dixon L. Walters, who was shot down over Kuwait on 31 January 1991. The 128th Airborne Command and Control Squadron has flown more than 82,000 combat hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn Operation Odyssey Dawn, and Operation Unified Protector. Beginning in 2011, its operational resume expanded to include support of five Combatant Commands including U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Southern Command. On 24 November 2010, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Designated the 116th Air Control Wing as an "Active Associate" wing and reorganized the "blended" wing concept. As a result of this reorganization, a new active duty associate wing was formed. The structure is an association of the Georgia Air Guard's 116th Wing and the active duty 461st Air Control Wing. They will continue to operate