908th Airlift Wing to Train USAF Students on New MH-139As 

Montgomery Alabama's Maxwell AFB has been chosen as the home of the first MH-139A Grey Wolf training unit. 

The new helo was unveiled in 2020 as the upcoming replacement for the long-lived - but long in the tooth - UH-1N Huey. 

In 2020 Air Force assigned the unit as a training flight which would pull double duty in providing security and support for the series of intercontinental ballistic missile fields spanning Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. The unit's MH-139 mission replaces the Reserve’s 908th Airlift Wing and its C-130Hs. 

Maxwell personnel were hard at work getting ready to host the new aircraft, installing simulators, facilities, and renovations that totaled about $8.4 million in all. In fiscal year 2023, they plan on sinking another $30 million into the base, in addition to around 180 new full time employees. Once up and running, the base will be the only one responsible for training new pilots for the MH-139, with about 150 students cycling through Montgomery each year going forward. 

“Each one of those students will be here for about 6 months, we believe," said Col. Craig Drescher, Commander of 908th Airlift Wing. "So, that’s a lot of hotel nights and a lot of meals in a restaurant or going to a biscuits game or whatever,” Drescher said. “We believe the financial impact, the economic impact is going to be substantial and sustained over a long hall.”

FMI: www.908aw.afrc.af.mil