New Lifeline Begins

Airmen with the 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston AFB, S.C., on Wednesday began the distribution of the US military’s new MRAP all-terrain vehicles to Afghanistan by loading two of them on a Southwest Asia-bound C-17 that flew in from McChord...

The Senators’ C-17 Debate

Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued in vain earlier this week to remove a $2.5 billion markup to the Senate’s version of the Fiscal 2010 defense spending bill to buy 10 C-17 transports...

Another Predator Flight Milestone

The US military’s fleet of MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft surpassed 600,000 flight hours on Sept. 4 during the flight of an Air Force MQ-1 in Southwest Asia that was operated by airmen of the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron at Creech...

From Airlift to Air Mobility

The 375th Airlift Wing at Scott AFB, Ill., officially became the 375th Air Mobility Wing on Wednesday to reflect the Total Force Integration effort that aligns it with the Illinois Air National Guard’s 126th Air Refueling Wing, also located at...

New Wings Taking Flight

SSgt. Austin May, a public affairs specialist with the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, Britain, designed the new wings occupational badge to be worn by airmen without previous flying qualification who will operate remotely piloted vehicles. The first...

Getting a Taste of Virtual Air War

More than 50 airmen of the 612th Air and Space Operations Center at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., and personnel from the Australian, British, and Canadian air forces last month took part in the first coalition Virtual Flag exercise at the desert...

First Romanian at NCO Academy

US Air Forces in Europe’s Kisling noncommissioned officer academy at Kapaun AS, Germany, in late September accepted its first Romanian Air Force student as part of the command’s international military education and training program. Plutonier (technical sergeant equivalent) Diana-Cristina Mireuta,...

One Final Mission

World War II bomber pilot Bernerd Harding, now 90 and suffering from prostate cancer, took a 30-minute ride in “The Witchcraft,” the last B-24 still flying, Sept. 25 from Laconia, N.H., to Manchester, N.H. “It was fun. It was worth...

Long-Lost USAF Aircraft Possibly Found

Aviation archaeologist Pat Macha came forward on Tuesday, claiming that he and group of volunteers had located the wreck of a T-33A Shooting Star trainer aircraft that went down off the Southern California coast on Oct. 15, 1955 and has...

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia

Sept. 29, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 30 31 61 12,283 CAS/Armed Recon 24 82 106 26,337 Airlift 149 149 35,933 Air refueling 56 56 13,035 Total 372 87,628 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...