GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The 17th Training Wing has a history of producing heroes.
The 17th TRW’s mission is to train, transform and empower joint and coalition warriors. We link our future through remembering our history and honoring our legacies.
The 17th TRW traces its heritage back to the 17th Pursuit Group, activated at March Field, California, in 1931.
In 1934, the 17th Pursuit Group emblem was authorized and featured a shield with seven crosses, each one representing the seven major offensives the 17th Pursuit Group supported during World War I. The top of the crest featured a mythological creature known as ‘The Griffin,’ part eagle and part lion, which symbolized the agility and strength of the 17th Pursuit Group. During World War II the 17th Pursuit Group transformed into the 17th Bombardment Group. It was around this time base graduated nearly ten thousand pilots, many of whom went on to perform dangerous missions in the service of the nation.
The 17th Bombardment Group’s French motto, “Toujours Au Danger” translates into, “Ever Into Danger.”
1st Lt. Bill Farrow, a Medal of Honor recipient who was trained at Goodfellow, embodied the motto Ever Into Danger by his role in the Tokyo Raid. Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led the secret and daring mission, which involved launching B-25 Mitchell bombers from the deck of an aircraft carrier striking the cities of Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka and Nagoya, in retaliation to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Goodfellow Air Force Base pulled upon its heritage by taking “17th” from the 17th Bombardment Group and established the 17th Training Wing years after the end of flight training. Presently, the 17th TRW focuses on training intelligence and fire protection missions. Joint service intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance or ISR warriors collect critical real-time information for combatant commanders, while fire protection students perform fire protection services at their operational bases across the globe.
Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson epitomized the motto Ever Into Danger. Jacobson was a Goodfellow Security Forces Defender, who was killed when her convoy was struck by an improvised explosive device while serving as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005. She was 21 years old.
Another service member who exemplified the motto was 1st Lt. Rosyln Schulte. She was a Goodfellow trained intelligence officer, who helped Afghan forces gather and interpret intelligence, when she was killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2009. She was 25 years old.
Also symbolic of the motto was 1st Lt. John J. Goodfellow. He was a San Angelo, Texas native and the namesake of the base; Lt. Goodfellow was killed while conducting a dangerous reconnaissance mission when his plane was shot down over Western France during World War I in 1918. Local residents renamed a newly built Army installation after him, Goodfellow Field. He was 23 years old.
As earned by the base’s history, the motto has now been brought back to help remember the base’s history, and honor its legacy.
Assigned or deployed around the globe, personnel with Goodfellow roots are ready to support the nation’s defense strategy and objectives, continuously earning that motto of Ever Into Danger.
“The Ever Into Danger motto has been earned by the 17th Training Wing by providing ISR and fire warriors for the fight,” said 17th TRW Historian, Mark Howell. “The 17th Training Wing is no stranger to the warrior ethos that allows men and women to not only survive but thrive in combat.”