The 18th Wing at Kadena AB, Japan, on the island of Okinawa has sent one of its KC-135s and crews to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, where they are training to refuel the new C-17 airlifter. TSgt. Chris Vadnais reports that the Kadena tanker aircrews rarely get to work with cargo aircraft and instead refuel mainly fighters. The difference? According to Capt. Mike Rossi, a Kadena pilot, the greater weight turbulence from the C-17 “pushes us around a little bit more from the back, so we have to take into account for that and just be prepared for any type of breakaway-type situations.”
In the final few hours before the Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day recess on May 26, lawmakers approved a raft of some 3,400 pending military nominations, including a number of high-profile Air Force and Space Force generals to assignments that will significantly reshape some of the upper echelons of…