Air traffic control apprentice SrA. Joshua Matias is the 2006 winner of the Air Traffic Control Association’s Lingiam Odems Memorial Award. Currently deployed to the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron at Balad AB, Iraq, for the second time, Matias actually got the award for the work he did on his first deployment to Balad, from May through September 2005.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.