The Air Force Association has landed in Meridian.

The Meridian chapter of the Air Force Association held its first annual business meeting last week at Northwood Country Club and elected officers. It is the fourth chapter in the state.

Roy Gibbens, U.S. Air Force veteran and founder and current president of the Meridian chapter, said the organization has several goals — one of the most important being education. Gibbens said, in much in the same way students are exposed to literature and history, they should be exposed to aviation and its importance in society.

“It’s giving people another option to choose from and a chance for us to expose them to new concepts and ideas that can excite their imagination,” Gibbens said.

The AFA accomplishes this by providing teachers with materials and literature and also supporting ROTC programs.

“They give a chance to fire rockets. They give students historical information about people like Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh and also information on aerodynamics and even weather patterns,” Gibbens said.

Gibbens said promoting aviation and aerospace awareness often leads to enlistment in the Air Force: “Most people in the Air Force have had this kind of education or support in the ROTC.”

In addition to educating the public, Gibbens said, the AFA also takes care of its own, providing the families of enlisted men and women with physical and financial support.

“They are family and we need to take care of them like family,” Gibbens said. “Families will often have to deal with a crisis when family members are overseas or they will have financial needs, so we are there to help them with that.”

Finally, Gibbens said, the group also hopes to keep the 186th Air Refueling Wing at the forefront of the area’s attention.

“We hope to find another mission for them either as a tanker outfit or another program, but we want to keep those people here,” Gibbens said.

The unit was realigned in the most recent round of Base Realignment and Closure hearings, and is scheduled to lose its tanker planes sometime in the next several years.

MORE INFORMATION

Anyone interested in becoming a member of the Meridian chapter of the Air Force Association

can call Roy Gibbens at (601) 482-4412. Applications are also available at the East Mississippi Development Corp. at Union Station in downtown Meridian.