Airmen with the Air Mobility Test and Evaluation Squadron at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., completed the final phase of testing on a new quick-don mask for mobility aircrews. The mask is designed so that airmen can put it on in one step within five seconds during emergency situations like loss of pressurization or smoke or fumes filling the aircraft. Pilots, loadmasters, and crew chiefs from the 305th Air Mobility Wing tested the mask last month in a C-17 flight simulator at the joint base. “The mask is very comfortable and does not impede me while wearing my glasses,” said Capt. Russ Williams, a C-17 pilot with the wing’s 6th Airlift Squadron. The testers will send their data to AMC headquarters where the decision will come whether to procure the mask for the operational mobility fleet. (McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst report by A1C Dennis L. Sloan)
Walking the flight line occupied by Blackhawk attack helicopters and American troops on rotation at the “MK” air base in Romania, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III highlighted the important strategic value of one of NATO’s newest members Oct. 20 ahead of NATO defense ministerial meetings in Brussels Oct. 21-22.…