NATO air forces held a flag ceremony April 8 at NATO Allied Air Component Command headquarters at Ramstein AB, Germany, to mark the accession of Albania and Croatia as the 27th and 28th members of the alliance. Gen. Roger Brady, head of US Air Forces in Europe and commander of the alliance’s air component, led the ceremony, during which a multinational color guard detail hoisted the flags of the new members for the first time to complete the formation of flags outside of the air component HQ building. The two Balkan states formally joined NATO April 1. (Ramstein report by MSgt. Scott Wagers)
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…