Sandwiched between a deployment to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, about five years ago, Col. R. Wyn Elder spent two assignments at McChord Field.

And after two other assignments on the east coast and another in the Midwest, Elder's Air Force career has led him back to McChord.

In front of a crowd filled with Airmen, Soldiers, local civic leaders, friends and family, Elder took over command of the 62nd Airlift Wing from Col. Kevin Kilb during a ceremony Tuesday morning in a hangar next to the flightline.

Elder served as the commander of the 4th Airlift Squadron, the only squadron in the Air Force that flies nuclear weapons and their components among bases around the globe, from June 2006 to April 2008 before serving as deputy commander of the 62nd Operations Group until July of that same year.

He arrives at McChord this time after a stint as vice commander of the 97th Air Mobility Wing at Altus Air Force Base, Okla.

After accepting command of the wing, Elder stressed the importance of combat airlift and its vital role in delivering supplies to troops on the ground, transporting wounded servicemembers from war zones to combat hospitals and keeping convoys off the roads with precision air drops.

"We save lives," he said. "And it takes every single Airman and civilian in the 62nd to get that done. We all play a role and every role matters."

Elder also stressed the need to work as a team with all those involved with the wing's mission of delivering combat airlift.

"Teamwork is exactly what I will expect from the 62nd with ourselves, with our partners on Joint Base Lewis-Mcchord and our partners in the (deployed) theater," he said.

Elder entered the Air Force in 1991 as a graduate of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program at the University of Virginia. During his career in the Air Force he also served as the special assistant to the commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, where he directed strategic engagements with Congress, industry, academia, sister services and other combatant commands.

And Elder, a father of three boys, isn't the only one serving in his family. His wife, Maggie, has been an officer in the Air Force Reserve for a while, and recently joined the 86th Aerial Port Squadron at McChord.

Elder is a graduate of the National War College, and a senior pilot with more than 2,800 hours in the C-17 Globemaster III, KC-135 Stratotanker, T-1 Jayhawk, T-38 Talon and T-37 Tweet.