"The 913th medical squadron is inactivated effective 1 October 2007, ... the 913th communications flight is inactivated ... the 913th mission support flight ... the 913th civil engineering squadron ... inactivated," Staff Sgt. Dan Lanphaer read into the microphone as each person stepped forward with a flag.
As camera shutters clicked and family members watched, each first sergeant presented his squadron guidon to command Chief Clifford Van Yahres, who carefully rolled the flag.
Then Maj. Gen. Marty Mazick, 22nd Air Force commander, which the 913th fell under, slid the flag in a case and tied it shut.
After it was encased, the first sergeant put the flag into a stand, until 13 wrapped flags were standing next to the podium waiting for the last one, the wing flag to be retired and put in the center.
"What we do here today is very difficult, because we've made a lifetime investment," said Mazick. "This base has been a part of you and a part of this community since 1958. That's what makes it so hard to close a base like this."
The flags will be sent to the U.S. Air Force Historical Office at the Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., where they will remain, unless, as occasionally occurs, the 913th is reactivated, Mazick said.
"You've had a great history at Willow Grove," Mazick said. "Thank you for your participation in everything that you've done."
Mazick said the fact that the members of the 913th decided to have the inactivation ceremony on Sunday afternoon speaks volumes about the group. Sometimes a closing unit just boxes everything up without fanfare.
"The most enduring thing about you," Brig. Gen. Ric Severson, assistant vice commander of the Air Force Reserve Command, said to the members of the 913th, "was your will to win. The Grove - They're a tremendous family. You get them on the road and they're absolutely unstoppable."
Sate Rep. Tom Murt, R-181, presented a citation to the 913th Airlift Wing and also recognized Col. Giordano McMullen, 913th Airlift Wing commander.
"A great deal of controversy has surrounded the deactivation of the 913th and the closure of the NASJRB," Murt said referring to the Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, where the ceremony was held, "but I want to focus on the 913th."
The 913th Airlift Wing supported operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Having served in Iraq, I know that keeping the forces supplied in Iraq is no small endeavor and the 913 did that," Murt said. "God bless you and God bless America."
Speaking last, McMullen said that the closure of the base and deactivation of the wing is part of a budgetary restructuring plan.
"We're moving forward, contributing to the defensive force of freedom," McMullen said. "We must continue to sacrifice and serve."
The 913th flew 210,000 hours accident free.
"It's absolutely an incredible performance of which I'm incredibly proud," McMullen said.
When the news of the deactivation of the 913th came on Jan. 3, there were 1,275 people active with the 913th, said Capt. Mark Medvesky, chief of public affairs.
"Out of those 1,275 we placed 1,000," he said.
About 65 have retired and 205 have gone on inactive reserve status, he said.
About 100 stayed on the base working until the end and participated in Sunday's service.
The largest groups of people are going to the Delaware Air National Guard, McGuire Air Force Reserve in New Jersey, and the reserve unit of the Dover Air Force base in Delaware.
"Some are staying with the 111th Fighter Wing, Pa. Air National Guard, here in Willow Grove," Medvesky said.
"The plan is for it to be a National Guard base," he said. "The Guard is supposed to take over the property."
Medvesky said the 913th had been deployed twice since 2003 and both times were in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.
Master Sgt. Vincent Acquaviva, was with the maintenance group of the 913th and retired in February after 30 years. He worked full time as a civil servant and also was a reservist. He retired due to age, but had the wing not been deactivated, he probably would have continued to work there as maintenance for the I-130 aircraft.
"For me this is a bad day," Acquaviva said. "I never wanted to see the 913 deactivated or closed. This is my second family," said Acquaviva, who is now working for Carson Helicopter in Perkasie.
Senior Master Sgt. Mary Mullen was services superintendent.
"We had a services flight," she said. "It's lodging, food service, fitness and recreation and mortuary."
Mullen who lives in Stroudsburg, will commute one weekend a month at the McGuire base.
"It's hard to watch something that had been a real positive part of my life be closed down," she said.
Staff Sgt. Rysheen Allen, of Philadelphia, is at the beginning of his career, and has worked at the base for six years. He's not sure if he'll move or commute the longer distance.
He's going to work full time as a civilian at McGuire beginning today and as a reservist at Dover.
"One of the memories you can't forget is how much we're all so much of a family and you establish a relationship that can't be broken," Allen said. "I'm actually kind of nervous to go to a new base and start all over."
Anne McNulty and her husband, Edward, of Montgomery Township met while working at the 913th and are both retired.
"This is the most wonderful place I ever worked in my lifetime," she said. "The people were incredible."
She remembers standing in the hangar and watching people go off to serve in Desert Storm.
"It's incredible; with our country in a war and not enough people to fight it, it doesn't make any sense at all," McNulty said. "People just don't believe this is happening."