Lt. Gen. Kevin Sullivan, the Air Staff’s top loggie, said there were two issues that drove the service leadership’s decision last month to cancel the restructure of aircraft maintenance units. There was consensus that maintenance personnel would be better able to sustain and hone their core competencies if they are led by maintenance professionals, he said in a USAF release Sept. 4. There was also the desire “to reduce the amount of turmoil and change” within the service at this time, he said. Then Chief of Staff, now retired Gen. Michael Moseley, approved the realignment in May, and implementation of the plan was set to begin in July. But Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley put a hold on those plans on July 1. At the service’s senior leader summit Aug. 27, the leadership decided to axe the idea. Although maintenance and flying squadrons will remain separate, Sullivan said the service will still offer the training planned under the restructure as a means of improving the ties between maintenance and ops. “We’re also looking at other ways to strengthen that ops-maintenance bond within the existing wing structure,” he said.
Hawaii F-22s Wrap Up Deployment to Japan
April 9, 2021
F-22s and Airmen from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, forward deployed to Japan for almost one month to train with Japanese and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft as part of a “dynamic force employment” operation. The Raptors from the Active-duty 19th Fighter Squadron and Air National Guard 199th Fighter Squadron deployed…