Air Force Special Operations Command dedicated an area of its Melrose Bombing Range at Cannon AFB, N.M., March 14 to the memory of the crew of Jockey 14, an AC-130 gunship that crashed off the coast of Kenya 14 years ago. The aircraft was supporting UN forces in Somalia March 4, 1994, when it had an in-flight explosion and crash landed. Eight of the aircraft’s 14 aircrew were lost in the mishap. The area at the range is now known as “the Jockey 14 live-impact area,” AFSOC said in a release March 20.
Amid a renewed focus on readiness, Congress moved to keep the Air Force’s shrinking combat fleet from getting even smaller in the latest version of its annual defense policy bill, blocking scores of divestments of two major fourth-generation fighters.
