The Air Force has hired former USA Today reporter Dave Moniz as part of a revamping of its internal and external communications function. Moniz is serving as a senior public affairs adviser, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Air Force subsumed public affairs, readers may recall, under a new communications department, being led by Brig. Gen. Erwin F. Lessel III, a command pilot who was last heading plans and programs for Air Force Materiel Command, but who also served on the PR front lines as multi-national force spokesman in Iraq.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.