Taking a key position at Keesler Air Force Base on the Mississippi coast is like coming home for Colonel Richard Naylor, a native of the area.

Naylor is taking over as vice commander of the 2nd Air Force and will be stationed at the base in Biloxi.

Second Air Force oversees military and technical training for some 225,000 graduates around the world.

Naylor is a native of Long Beach, just west of Biloxi.

Naylor graduated from Long Beach High School and joined the Air Force in 1983 after graduating from the University of Tennessee.

His last assignment was as commander of a training group at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.