Maj. Douglas Ware, now chief of the airfield operations and procedures branch within Air Mobility Command headquarters at Scott AFB, Ill., received a Bronze Star Medal for his meritorious service in Iraq during a year-long deployment that concluded on June 15. Ware “cultivated lasting improvements to the Iraqi national airspace system” during his time in Baghdad as an air traffic control program manager and advisor to Iraqi air force headquarters, according to his award citation and narrative. These efforts aided in the phased transfer of airspace from coalition forces to the Iraqi government, states the documents.
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.