B-1B Lancers and airmen of the 28th Bomb Wing returned to Ellsworth AFB, S.D., completing a six-month deployment in support of operations in Afghanistan. “We’re very proud of all that they have accomplished and thrilled to have them safely back home,” summed Col. Mark Weatherington, 28th BW commander. “Our airmen provided phenomenal support for operations in that region,” he added. Their homecoming on Wednesday marked the culmination of a busy year for the wing. Flying strike missions over Libya before deploying to Southwest Asia, 28th BW crews amassed more than 1,200 combat sorties, executing 3,000 tactical air requests and decisively intervening in 432 ground engagements in the past year, according to wing officials. They also dropped nearly 700 weapons, destroying more than 320 targets and eliminating an estimated 150 enemy combatants, they said. (Ellsworth release)
In 1941, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold of the then-U.S. Army Air Corps, personally reviewed a jet engine patented by Sir Frank Whittle flying on a Gloster E.28/39 aircraft. Impressed by its design, Arnold arranged for a Whittle engine to be brought back to the U.S. and tasked General Electric…