Six Air Force Reservists assigned to the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown ARS, Ohio, earlier this week briefed members of Congress in Washington, D.C., on the unit’s just-completed mission in the Gulf of Mexico to contain the massive oil spill there. “We’re proud of what we have contributed to our nation and our communities,” said Maj. Mark Breidenbaugh, an entomologist with the wing. Over the course of a five week deployment to Mississippi, two of the unit’s specially modified C-130s sprayed nearly 150,000 gallons of dispersant to help break up the oil slick. This marked the first time that these C-130s were called on to support efforts to contain an oil spill of national significance. (AFNS report by Col. Bob Thompson)
The White House announced its United States Space Priorities Framework in a document released concurrently with Vice President Kamala Harris' first National Space Council meeting. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”