The Delaware Air National Guard is at 100 percent of its authorized manning level—currently 1,107 personnel—for the first time since the Vietnam War era, according to officials with the 166th Airlift Wing in New Castle, the state’s sole flying unit. The state’s Air Guard reached the milestone on Sept. 6 when Brig. Gen. Carol Timmons, the Delaware National Guard’s assistant adjutant general for air, swore in recruit Dominique DiMatteo, a 17-year-old high school senior who is a cadet at the Delaware Military Academy in Wilmington. After graduation, DiMatteo will attend Air Force basic military training and technical school and then join the 142nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, a part of the wing. “Our recruiting team and our entire base population have worked hard to inform young people in our region of the overall value and sense of service that a person can gain from joining the Delaware Air National Guard,” said Timmons in a separate release. “Their efforts have borne fruit as we have obtained this most significant recruiting milestone.” (Includes New Castle report by SSgt. Andrew Horgan)
The first flight of the secretive B-21 bomber has slipped to mid-2022, but the program is moving along well, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director Randall Walden said in an exclusive interview. The second copy of the B-21, which will be used for structural testing, is now on the production…