Seasoned by years of hurricane response, the 
Mississippi Air National Guard was on the move within the first 24 hours after the storm hit land. A C-17 from the 172nd Airlift Wing at Jackson, Miss., flew 90,000 pounds of food into the airfield at Gulfport, Miss. The supplies were gone within a day, and six New York ANG C-5s from the 105th AW, Stewart ANGB, N.Y., flew in 540,000 pounds more.
B-52 Stratofortress bombers marked a new first in Operation Epic Fury when some of the BUFFs flew over Iran carrying JDAM-guided gravity bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. The development signals a weakening of Iranian air defenses and a new use for the venerable bomber in the nearly…