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 Moore succeeds Westgate as 116th Airlift Wing commander

Savannah’s 165^th Airlift Wing undergoes a change of command on Saturday, November 6 when Col Thomas R. Moore assumes command from Col. Stephen Westgate who was recently been appointed Chief of Staff of the 3,000-member Georgia Air National Guard.

The change of command will occur at the Headquarters of the 165^th at the Savannah International Airport.

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 165^th, moved to the Savannah-based unit in March 2002 from the 116^th 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 11^th Air Refueling Squadron and later Chief of Wing Scheduling and KC-135 senior standardization /evaluation navigator, 340^th 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 28^th Bomb Squadron, McConnell AFB,KS. He later became the training unit flight instructor and tactics officer and chief of scheduling for the 338^th 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 116^th Bomb Wing. In June 1998, he became the commander of the 116^th Bomb Wing.

Moore served with the 416^th Air Expeditionary Group of the US Central Command in Uzbekistan before returning to the 116^th as deputy operations group commander. 

Col Stephen Westgate, Commander of the 165^th AW for more than twenty  years was appointed Chief of Staff, Headquarters, Georgia Air National Guard in October 2002.