Special ops commander relieved, another reassigned at Air National Guard Wing

The top commander of a special operations training wing in the New Mexico Air National Guard was relieved of command on Aug. 14, and the wing’s deputy commander was transferred to another unit, state officials confirmed to Task & Purpose Monday.

Col. Christopher George was fired as the commander of the 150th Special Operations Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, wing officials said. The wing’s deputy commander, Col. Jeffry Heggemeier, was “reassigned to Headquarters, New Mexico Air National Guard” on the same day, officials said. On Monday, guard officials said Heggemeier’s removal as deputy commander was “a personnel assignment action and is not a relief from duty or command.” Heggemeier remains “an officer in good standing,” according to a statement guard officials released Monday afternoon.

Both officers were removed from their roles by Brig. Gen. Matthew Henry, the guard’s commanding officer and the state’s assistant adjutant general.

George took command of the wing in April 2025, while Heggemeier had been in his position for close to six months. Officials with the guard did not provide a reason for George’s relief, but said Heggemeier had been moved so that a rated officer — the Air Force term for qualified aviators —could be moved into the wing’s senior leadership.

“These leadership changes do not affect the 150th Special Operations Wing’s mission or operational readiness,” a spokesperson for the New Mexico National Guard told Task & Purpose. Hank Minitrez, Public Affairs Director for the guard, said that because the command changes were “a personnel matter, the New Mexico National Guard will not provide additional details regarding the circumstances surrounding the leadership changes at this time.”

The 150th is a training wing within Air Force Special Operations Command and is based at Kirtland, one of the Air Force’s primary special operations and rescue training centers. The wing operates in conjunction with the base’s active duty 58th Special Operations Wing, which oversees the training pipelines for a wide range of special operations jobs, including Pararescue specialists and the crews that man AC-130 gunships.

A lawman and a laser scientist

Both George and Heggemeier took notably unusual paths to leadership of the 335-person wing in Albuquerque, according to professional biographies that were still online Saturday night.

George, according to the biography, has spent his entire three-decade career with the 150th, including 15 years as an enlisted crew chief for F-16 fighter jets that the wing flew until 2013. After commissioning as a security forces officer, he commanded the wing’s law enforcement and security squadron as it transitioned to training duties under AFSOC, before moving up into higher leadership roles.

George has also served in civilian law enforcement for 24 years, according to his biography.

Heggemeier was appointed the 150th’s deputy wing commander only in March. A career-long reservist and directed-energy scientist, Heggemeier spent most of his Air Force career as a researcher in combat-focused laser and directed-energy systems at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate, which is also at Kirtland.

Heggemeier developed a directed microwave system known as MAX POWER to target improvised bombs, according to an Air Force release, and took the system into combat at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

“In 2012, as a reservist, he deployed to Afghanistan to field a high-power microwave system that neutralized improvised explosion devices, for the first time ever in combat,” his online biography said. “Heggemeier led many combat missions, driving in front of Army and Marine convoys, clearing the route of IEDs and protecting those following him.”

Key special ops training base

Training on base includes crew and pilot training for AC-130J gunships, MC-130J tankers, CV-22 Ospreys and the year-long Pararescue training course that produces the service’s elite rescue specialists. The wing recently produced a detailed press release on its role in Combat Search and Rescue training after the rescue of two downed F-15E crew members in Iran in April.

Col. Angela Black has been temporarily appointed to command the wing, Guard officials said.

George and Heggemeier are the second pair of Air National Guard leaders removed from the top two command positions of a state’s air guard wing in the last month. The wing commander and deputy commander of the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing were removed from their posts on July 17 due to a “loss of confidence and trust in their ability to effectively lead and command,” an expression the military often uses in firings to cover a range of reasons. There was no indication Saturday that the two sets of removals were related.  

The 150th Wing supports AFSOC training courses at Kirtland, along with overseeing a Red Horse team, a specially trained engineering unit that deploys to austere, often unpassable airstrips to quickly build and improve a runway and facilities that can sustain modern combat aircraft.

UPDATE, 8/17/2026: This story has been updated with additional statements released Monday afternoon from the New Mexico National Guard, noting that Col. Jeffry Heggemeier’s removal as deputy wing commander of the 150th Special Operations Wing was “a personnel assignment action” and that he remains “an officer in good standing.”