The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB, Okla., has inactivated the 654th Combat Logistics Support Squadron, one of three units formerly charged with deploying to hot spots to repair battle-damaged aircraft that will end their missions. The other two are the 653rd CLSS (inactivates in 2009) at Warner Robins ALC in Georgia and the 649th CLSS (inactivates in 2010) at Ogden ALC in Utah. The Air Force established combat logistics squadrons during the Vietnam War, but money woes prompted Air Force Materiel Command to re-think the way today’s aircraft are repaired and reduce manpower. Some members of the 654th CLSS will retire or transfer to other maintenance units, including a new expeditionary depot maintenance flight. Air Force Reserve Command disbanded its CLSS units almost two years ago. (Tinker report by Brandice Armstrong)
Just days after a Defense Intelligence Agency report predicted new ballistic missile testing by North Korea, the Pyongyang regime fired a a submarine-launched ballistic missile which landed in the Sea of Japan. While U.S. Indo-Pacific Command downplayed the test as representing no new threat to the U.S. or regional allies,…