The head of Air Force Materiel Command, Gen. Bruce Carlson, told local civic and business leaders in the Dayton, Ohio, area earlier this week that the life expectancy of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has grown after the 2005 BRAC. According to the Dayton Daily News, Carlson briefed the crowd on Air Force plans to downsize its force by some 40,000 positions to help pay for rejuvenating its now on average 23-year-old aircraft fleet. The good news for Dayton, said Carlson, is that BRAC delivered new missions and more than 1,100 jobs to Wright-Patt.
A helicopter instructor pilot failed to take sufficient corrective action in time to fix the mistakes of a student pilot taking off from a slope, resulting in a rollover that caused nearly $11 million in damages to a TH-1H chopper last spring.