The Air Force has awarded Bronze Star medals for meritorious service to Capt. Raymond Kerr and TSgt. Ronald White, airmen assigned to the 36th Wing at Andersen AFB, Guam, for their actions while deployed to Afghanistan. Kerr, chief of construction management for the 36th Civil Engineer Squadron, led a team that constructed facilities for the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Fleet, enabling the beddown of more than 700 Afghan personnel. “They don’t have the engineers right now to build these facilities, so we’re doing that for them and allowing them to focus on taking the fight out to the enemy,” Kerr said. White, 36th CES explosive ordnance disposal flight team leader, helped find, catalogue, track, and disarm many different categories of improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance. Brig. Gen. Phil Ruhlman, 36th Wing commander, presented the two airmen with their medals during a May 29 ceremony. (Andersen report by SrA. Shane Dunaway)
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.