Approximately 60 airmen, mostly from the Texas Air National Guard, took a C-130 and an F-16 to Santiago, Chile, for a week-long exchange visit in conjunction with the FIDAE international air and space fair. “The opportunity to meet with our Chilean air force hosts promotes interoperability, which can be applied to events ranging from exercises to humanitarian-assistance operations,” said Col. Steve Pedrotty, director of operations for 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern), in a release. The aircraft represented the Air Force on static display during the show, which ran from March 25 to 30. The US airmen shared techniques and ideas with their Chilean air force counterparts in C-130 and F-16 maintenance and operations, aerospace medicine, and several other areas. The Texas Air Guard and Chileans host routine exchanges as part of the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program. (Santiago report by Capt. Justin Brockhoff)
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, celebrated the beddown of its full complement of F-35s with a ceremony just weeks after the base received the last of its 54 fighters. The arrival of those F-35s in mid-April gave Eielson the Air Force’s second fully-equipped, combat-coded F-35 wing, comprising two fighter squadrons.…