• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Military / Osceola native takes top post with 185th Air Guard in Sioux City

Osceola native takes top post with 185th Air Guard in Sioux City

February 10, 2020 By Radio Iowa Contributor

Sonya Finch

An Osceola native is taking over as the new Mission Support Group Commander of Sioux 185th Air National Guard Refueling Wing.

Colonel Sonya Finch was sworn in Saturday to lead the largest of four groups that comprise the 185th. Colonel Finch has spent her entire military career in the Iowa National Guard since joining at age 17. She says giving back to the community was one of two reasons she joined the Iowa Guard.

“I always wanted to fly, and at some point I started to realize that, to fly I really wanted to let the military help me with that,” Finch explains. The support services group she oversees does a lot of things to help 85th complete its mission of flying their refueling missions around the world.

“The security forces, the contracting, it’s the engineers, the supply, the services, how we feed people, how we serve people, all the logistics of that. Paying people, personnel, and then of course environmental management, we’ve got firefighters on base,” Finch says, “everything that it takes for a base to support the ability to fly a tanker.”

Finch has more than 2,000 hours flying experience including more than 500 combat hours. She had her inaugural membership in the 185th as a KC-135 pilot during the mid-2000’s and has been working in current operations at the 132nd Wing in Des Moines.

“It’s been a little over six years since I’ve been here, so coming back and finding faces and finding people that I’ve know for years — it’s really nice to be able to have those contacts and to be able to come back,” Finch says.
Colonel Finch takes over for Colonel Stephany Samenus, who has been promoted to Vice Commander of the 185th.

(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Military, News Tagged With: Iowa National Guard

Featured Stories

Iowans 65+ now eligible in next phase of Covid vaccinations

Bill would remove transfer limits in five Iowa school districts

Former Iowa sports talk host sentenced to federal prison for ticket scams

Feenstra only member of Iowa delegation not at Biden’s inauguration

Congresswoman Axne favors Biden pandemic relief plan, Hinson not ruling out a ‘yes’

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

UNI adds two nonconference games to basketball schedule

Iowa State-Kansas postponed

Iowa-Michigan State postponed

Fire damage to Riverfront Stadium electrical system will cost Waterloo thousands

Iowa State at Kansas State postponed

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 · Learfield News & Ag, LLC