About 65 Air National Guardsmen with the New York ANG’s 102nd Rescue Squadron are using a deployment to Djibouti, Africa, with their HC-130 to practice their trade: dropping pararescue jumpers and refueling helicopters. They are working with Air Force and Marine elements that are part of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. The ANG unit also has among its members an active duty pilot—1st Lt. Matt Stueck—who is on his first deployment. The 102nd RQS is helping to season Stueck and other active duty members.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…