{"id":16094,"date":"2025-10-27T00:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/16094\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T00:04:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:04:06","slug":"local-pennsylvania-air-national-guard-unit-holds-change-of-command-ceremony-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/16094\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Pennsylvania Air National Guard unit holds change of command ceremony \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">CORAOPOLIS, Pa. \u2014 A local unit of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard held a change of command ceremony on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Col. Ryan Dr. Strong took command of the 171st Air Refueling Wing during the ceremony in Coraopolis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Maj. Gen. Terrence L. Koudelka Jr., deputy adjutant general-air and commander of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, passed a ceremonial flag known as a guidon to Strong, making him Wing Commander. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cColonel Strong brings great leadership and a clear commitment to our Airmen and mission,\u201d Koudelka said. \u201cWe look forward to seeing the 171st continue to excel under his command.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Strong graduated from Baker University in 1998 and joined the 190th ARW the next year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Strong has logged more than 5,300 total hours as an instructor and evaluator pilot over his career. He\u2019s participated in Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Inherent Resolve, Freedom Sentinel and Restore Hope.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to join the 171st and lead a team with such a proud legacy of excellence,\u201d Strong said. \u201cI look forward to continuing our mission with integrity, teamwork and dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Col. Raymond L. Hyland led the 171st before Strong, having taken command in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORAOPOLIS, Pa. \u2014 A local unit of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard held a change of command ceremony&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11837,11829,11833,11847,11846,11844,5503,525,11836,11831,11845,11838,11840,1446,11843,11839,11830,9985,6495,28,11832,30,29,7694,11841,11835,11834,11842],"class_list":["post-16094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-171st","tag-171st-air-refueling-wing","tag-air","tag-arw","tag-baker-university","tag-ceremonial","tag-ceremony","tag-change","tag-change-of-command","tag-colonel","tag-command","tag-enduring-freedom","tag-freedom-sentinel","tag-general","tag-guidon","tag-inherent-resolve","tag-iraqi-freedom","tag-major","tag-operation","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-air-national-guard","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-refueling","tag-restore-hope","tag-unit","tag-wing","tag-wing-commander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}