Airmen deployed to maintain the U-2 Dragon Lady for its mission over Southwest Asia have amassed more than 155 consecutive launches of the high-flying reconnaissance aircraft without a maintenance-related cancellation. The crews of the 99th Aircraft Maintenance Unit from Beale AFB, Calif., perform “day in and day out,” with “awesome teamwork,” said MSgt. Craig Van Valkenburgh, the 99th AMU production supervisor.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…