An Old, Old Tradition:

April 18, 2007

Airmen performed an Air Force Review on April 14 at the new Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va. Hosted by Maj. Gen. Robert Smolen, commander of the Air Force District of Washington, the event marked the return of a 300-year-old military tradition stemming from the use of drummers to call English troops from their billets in towns and villages around a battlefield, reports SSgt. Madelyn Waychoff.

Related Content

Right on Cue, North Korea Testing Ballistic Missiles, as Predicted by DIA

Oct. 19, 2021
No sooner had the Defense Intelligence Agency issued its North Korean Military Power report, in which it predicted Pyongyang would resume ballistic missile tests, than North Korea did exactly that, lofting a submarine-launched ballistic missile Oct. 19. The test, in which an SLBM launched from the port of Sinpo into…

Ukraine Welcomes Austin but Calls for Air Defense and Vocal Support to Join NATO

Oct. 19, 2021
Laying a wreath for fallen Ukrainian soldiers in the ongoing war with Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in Kyiv on Oct. 19 voiced support for the 30-year-old democracy, but Ukraine security experts say the Biden administration naively falls short and leaves Ukraine open to Russian invasion. "This administration…

DOD Mum on China’s Nuclear-Capable Hypersonic Weapon, Hints US Needs to Step It Up

Oct. 19, 2021
Across the defense establishment, officials have declined to comment on a report that China fielded a nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon in August, but defense policy nominee Alexandra Baker told senators Oct. 19 there was a “sense of urgency” for the Defense Department to develop similar capabilities. For two days, DOD officials…

KC-46, F-35 Provide Lessons for Future Testing, Pentagon Nominee Says

Oct. 19, 2021
The nominee to take over the role of director of operational test and evaluation for the Pentagon told lawmakers Oct. 19 that lessons from the KC-46 and F-35 will prove useful to the testing community in the years to come. Guertin wrote in response to the Senate panel’s advanced policy…

Senate Appropriations Proposes $500 Million Extra for Space Force in 2022

Oct. 18, 2021
The Senate Appropriations Committee released its version of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act on Oct. 18, proposing an additional half billion dollars for the Space Force's 2022 budget and 16 more C-130Js for the Air Force, while leaving the service's requests for F-35s and F-15EXs untouched.

Austin Visits Non-NATO Partner Georgia to Tout New Russia Deterrence Efforts

Oct. 18, 2021
Before Russia took NATO by surprise in 2014, invading Ukraine and taking the Crimean peninsula, some 200 miles from NATO shores was Georgia. In the Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin spurred a frozen conflict, and Russia still occupies some 20 percent of Georgian…

As National AI Panel Shuts Down, New Think Tank Emerges to Continue Its Work

Oct. 18, 2021
The congressionally chartered National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence has completed its work, but the team that created its 756-page report will continue, backed this time by its former chair, Eric Schmidt, who is committing his own money to the new effort, dubbed the "Special Competitive Studies Project." Schmidt was…