President Bush on Saturday descended upon Charleston AFB, S.C., telling airmen of the active duty 437th Airlift Wing and its associate unit, Air Force Reserve Command’s 315th Airlift Wing, that he was “in the neighborhood” and wanted to say he is “impressed by the record of the folks here at Charleston Air Force Base.” He noted in his remarks that the base’s airmen, since September 2001, have “launched more than 14,000 C-17 missions.” He went on to say: “You have airlifted more cargo to Operation Iraqi Freedom than any other unit in the United States. … You have provided humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan. … You delivered 53,000 pounds of relief supplies to the tsunami victims in Indonesia. And, after Hurricane Katrina, you delivered 2.5 million pounds of relief supplies and evacuated 2,400 citizens from New Orleans.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
