Joint Base Andrews, Md. –
The Air Force District of Washington has been reactivated as a fully-capable, independent Air Force unit for seven years as of July 7, 2012. However, when looking at the historical record in its entirety, Headquarters Air Force has relied upon AFDW in various incarnations within the National Capital Region for more than 45 years, the earliest dating back to 1946.
One organization existed before the name "Air Force District of Washington" was ever spoken. Headquarters Command was responsible for oversight of all Air Force missions in the National Capital Region. While there have been two organizations to carry the label of "AFDW," this organization predates them both.
Headquarters Command, originally called Bolling Field Command, was established on Dec. 15, 1946. World War II was over and U.S. military aviation assets had proven themselves in peacetime by redeploying 250,000 service members and 5,900 aircraft to the continental United States.
Headquarters Command was responsible for transitioning and preserving an expeditionary deployment capability into Europe, eventually creating Military Air Transport Service in 1948 to support the new Department of Defense. The proximity of Bolling and Andrews Air Force bases to each other allowed for a single organization to develop that capability. For 15 months from June 1948 to May 1949, both bases participated in logistics support for the Berlin Airlift. In August 1949, with the U.S.S.R's detonation of its own atomic bomb, greater demands were put on the U.S. Air Force with Headquarters Command serving as both the orderly room to Headquarters Air Force as well as to support MATS-centric missions.
Headquarters Command eventually became a cornerstone of support for North Atlantic Treaty Organization logistics operations, as well as the air defense of the NCR. In 1965, MATS was replaced by Military Airlift Command (which became Air Mobility Command after the first Gulf War), and became independent from Headquarters Command. Support for Headquarters Air Force, however, remained the focus of Headquarters Command's missions up to July 1976. To this day, HAF support missions and the defense of the NCR have remained essential missions for all generations of AFDW.
While the current incarnation of AFDW achieved full operation capability in 2005, the first by-name incarnation of AFDW was stood up in 1985 as the polarity of U.S./Soviet relations was beginning to spin down. Without a rival superpower to threaten U.S. allies and interests, all services entered a period of introspection as they considered how to transition their military assets to a new era. The new era allowed for a greater use of military resources domestically for relief operations, but without a clear and present danger, funding had become harder to justify.
The 1985 version of AFDW was created as an umbrella organization to coordinate the transition of Air Force assets in the NCR. Post-Cold War funding reductions, however, frustrated commanders in the region, prompting some to refuse to identify with AFDW. A few took umbrage at AFDW's new role, perceiving AFDW as "hoarding" funds, when in fact there were far fewer funds available across the service.
In 1994, as relationships between AFDW and its components heated up, the resulting friction prompted then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak to inactivate the AFDW tier-level organization, famously stating, "The Air Force doesn't have districts; we have wings."
The 11th Wing, a long-storied organization with a history dating back to 1933, stood up to serve as the direct reporting unit for Headquarters Air Force, with other organizations under the AFDW of 1985 also reverting to conventional Air Force structures.
Today's AFDW stood up for a six-month initial operating capability on Jan 1, 2005. This six-month period was to allow for time needed to "re-brand" Air Force missions in the NCR under AFDW. The re-branding process entailed more than resurrecting an emblem and mission statement -- it also included absorbing missions that had previously existed outside the 11th Wing when the wing had been the previous direct reporting unit to HAF.
The challenge for the first AFDW commander, Brig. Gen. Duane A. Jones, was to win the support of other commanders and create a common identity so appealing to all Air Force assets in the NCR that the commanders were willing to accept the new mission identity. This wasn't easy, as the previous incarnation of AFDW collapsed because such a shared identity was lacking. In a 2006 interview, Jones described the need for that shared identity as being "one of the greatest challenges" for the new AFDW.
"We learned many lessons from the original AFDW, including how not to do things," said Jones during the interview. "It was a major concern for [AFDW] to be understood as not taking over, but being an enabler [for commanders] to raise their concerns to a higher level of leadership on their behalf."
For three generations, HAF has driven the need for a regional command to expedite issues and policies on their behalf, but AFDW and its ancestral organizations have always distinguished themselves in a separate province. From refining the capabilities of America's air strength, to Cold War transitions, to today's age of asymmetric warfare, the names have changed, but the focus of the men and women who support the Air Force voice in the NCR have continued to lead the way in adventurous times.