Fifty-five airmen from Air Force Reserve Command’s 440th Airlift Wing at Pope AFB, N.C., deployed in two of their C-130H transports, along with nine colleagues from Pope’s active duty 43rd Airlift Wing, on May 25 to Ramstein AB, Germany, for a 16-day stint in Europe, including possible missions to Africa. The deployment is the first joint mission of the units to the European theater since they formed an association as part of BRAC 2005. “It is historic and it’s a first step in a long lasting relationship of things yet to come,” said Col. Michael Thornton, 43rd Operations Group commander. “We’re glad to see [the active duty personnel] step out and help out the Reserves with this type of mission, as well as the Reserves working together to season some of our aircrew on this type of mission.” As part of BRAC, the 440th AW moved in June 2007 from Milwaukee, Wis., to Pope. (Pope report by SSgt. Jon LaDue)
An aircraft built to quickly infiltrate and exfiltrate troops from far-flung locations left a Norwegian nature preserve Sept. 27., more than a month after it emergency-landed. The CV-22 Osprey belonging to Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) had been stranded on the island of Senja since making a controlled emergency…