MINOT AIR FORCE BASE The 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base will have a change in its top leadership next month.
Col. James Dawkins Jr. will be moving to Washington, D.C., where he will become the principal assistant deputy administrator for Military Application/deputy administrator for Defense Programs with the National Nuclear Security Administration at the U.S. Department of Energy, according to Minot AFB Public Affairs.
The NNSA was established by Congress in 2000 as a separately organized agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, and is responsible for the management and security of the nation's nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation and naval reactor programs.
Dawkins became commander of the Minot bomb wing in May 2011.
A change of command ceremony will be held Jan. 14 when Col. Alexis Mezynski will take command of the Minot bomb wing from Dawkins. Currently, Mezynski is vice commander of the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB, La.
The Minot bomb wing commander is responsible for providing combat-ready B-52H Stratofortress aircraft, crews and associated combat support for deterrence, crisis response, global power projection, major theater war and maritime operations and Air and Space Expeditionary Force deployments.
The bomb wing commander also serves as the installation commander at Minot AFB.