>>April 11, 2006: Despite, or perhaps because of, the war on terror, SOCOM is losing thousands of troops . . . while several thousand U.S. Air Force combat search-and-rescue troops (along with their HC-130 aircraft and HH-60 helicopters) are transferring to the Air Combat Command. In both cases, SOCOM has mixed feelings about losing these troops. Both Civil Affairs and search-and-rescue troops are not really, at their core, special operations forces.<<
Bit more of a story there than just that, I suspect. USAF CSAR assets have only belonged to SOCOM since post-9/11, and so this is really a move back to ACC, the previous higher headquarters.
347th Rescue Wing's PAO was suitable vague, "Designed to create several advantages for the Air Force, the plan also creates bonuses for the combatant commanders as well."
The only cited advantages of the move is it will be easier to integrate CSAR units into Red Flag exercises and to dispatch them to assist Northern Command with events like Hurricane Katrina.
Sounds like there may be a bit more to the story . . .
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