Officials in Richland County, Ohio, secured a Labor Department grant for nearly $145,000 to help search for a new mission for Air National Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing at Lahm Airport in Mansfield, reports the Mansfield (OH) News Journal. The 2005 BRAC spared the wing but took its C-130s, so it must find a new mission. Local officials plan to use the money to compile information on skills and training levels of employees to market them for a new military mission and to research how to attract private sector development. An Ohio ANG spokesman tells the paper that a new mission could be assigned to the 179th within weeks. We should never underestimate the power of positive thinking.
Gene Smith, Former POW and AFA Chair, Dies at 91
Jan. 19, 2026
Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, who overcame five and a half years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton from 1967 until 1973, died Jan. 16. He was one day short of his 91st birthday.
