Maj. Gen. Mary Kay Hertog assumed command of 2nd Air Force at Keesler AFB, Miss., Wednesday, succeeding Maj. Gen. Alfred Flowers, who has been selected for reassignment as USAF’s budget director. Gen. Stephen Lorenz, Air Education and Training Command boss, presided over the ceremony. “I am honored and thrilled to be home again in 2nd Air Force,” said Hertog, who now will oversee technical and combat training for some 250,000 airmen annually. She added, “It all starts here. Training helps determine our future because leadership makes a difference.” Hertog most recently was director of the Air Force’s security forces. Flowers led 2nd AF since May 2008. (Keesler report by Angela Cutrer)
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…