Moore Takes Command at Savannah's 165th
Savannah's 165th Airlift Wing underwent a change of command November 6 when Col Thomas R. Moore assumed command of the 3,000-member Georgia Air National Guard.
 Col. Thomas Moore |
The change of command occurred at the Headquarters of the 165th at the Savannah International Airport. Moore assumed command from Col. Steven Westgate who was recently appointed Chief of Staff of the Georgia Air Guard.
Moore assumes command of the C-130 Georgia Air National Guard unit where more than 150 Georgia Air Guardsmen are currently deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Moore, formerly Vice Commander of the 165th, moved to the Savannah-based unit in March 2002 from the 116th Air Control Wing in Warner Robins.
He began his 23-year military career upon commissioning from the Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) program at the University of South Carolina in 1981. He graduated from undergraduate navigator training at Mather AFB, CA and served for five years as a navigator and instructor navigator with the 11th Air Refueling Squadron and later Chief of Wing Scheduling and KC-135 senior standardization /evaluation navigator, 340th Air Refueling Wing, Altus AFB, OK.
For one year beginning in April 1988, Moore was an offensive systems officer and weapons and tactics officer on the B-1 and assistant flight Commander assigned to the 28th Bomb Squadron, McConnell AFB,KS. He later became the training unit flight instructor and tactics officer and chief of scheduling for the 338th Combat Crew Training Squadron at Dyess AFB, TX.
For one year Moore was assigned to Langley AFB, VA as a nuclear weapons employment officer for Air Combat Command.
He joined the Georgia Air National Guard in October 1995 as a B-1 Squadron Operations officer at Dobbins ARB and later served a series of senior operations and logistics command positions with 116th Bomb Wing. In June 1998, he became the commander of the 116th Bomb Wing.
Moore served with the 416th Air Expeditionary Group of the US Central Command in Uzbekistan before returning to the 116th as deputy operations group commander.