The San Francisco Board of Education voted 4-2 Tuesday to phase out its school system’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, reports Associated Press news service. The problem, the board says, is the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, enacted during the Clinton Administration. AP reports that city by the bay Mayor Gavin Newsome called shelving JROTC a “bad idea” that puts people who want to participate in the “political peril of being in this ideological debate.” AP says San Francisco has some 1,600 students who participate in JROTC. The phase out would take place over 2007-08.
Three B-1B Lancers from the 7th Bomb Wing flew over the Indo-Pacific alongside F-16s from the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force as part of a joint large force exercise. The mission began and ended in the continental U.S. The bombers flew 31 hours and landed Jan. 11.