97th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron

The 97th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron provides safe, reliable aircraft for the Air Force’s mobility aircrew formal training mission, generating over 5,000 sorties and 23,000 flying hours annually. The Squadron is comprised of four flights, the KC-135, C-17 and KC-46 Aircraft Maintenance Units, and Support Flight. 

The squadron began its modern organizational history when Military Airlift Command’s 443rd Military Airlift Wing and Strategic Air Command’s 340th Air Refueling Wing combined on October 1, 1992, to create the 97th Air Mobility Wing under Air Mobility Command. On July 1, 1993, the 97th Air Mobility Wing realigned under Air Education and Training Command. The predecessor of today’s 97th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron was then designated the 97th Aircraft Generation Squadron, aligned under the 97th Logistics Group, and maintaining the wing’s C-5, C-141 and KC-135 fleets. In January 1996, the organization also began maintaining the newly delivered C-17 fleet.  In July of the same year, military aircraft maintenance assigned to the 97th Logistics Group began conversion to civil service. By February 1997, civil service aircraft maintainers had assumed primary responsibility for all C-5, C-141 and KC-135 maintenance. 

In August 2002, the 97th Logistics Group was inactivated and the 97th Air Mobility Wing Maintenance Directorate formed, to include Tanker and Airlift Aircraft Maintenance Divisions.  Additionally, C-17 maintenance then fully converted from military to civilian maintainers. In January 2007, the Tanker and Airlift Maintenance Divisions combined to form the 97th Aircraft Maintenance Division.  A decade later, in November 2017, the 97th Aircraft Maintenance Division was re-designated to today’s 97th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. The KC-46 was added to the aircraft maintained by the organization in February 2018.