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ext week, the C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft of the Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Wing will depart their home at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, reports the Detroit News. The Herk Air Guardsmen are training to fly and maintain the KC-135 tankers they are picking up from Air Force Reserve Command’s 927th Air Refueling Wing, which also leaves Selfridge. The Reservists leave their aircraft and join forces with the active duty 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill AFB, Fla. Meanwhile, back at Selfridge, the Air Guard’s 127th Wing also is trading its F-16s for A-10s.
In the small world of Air Force weather specialists, combat weather specialists are a niche unto themselves, deploying with Army ground units to provide forecasts and, if need be, fight alongside those Soldiers. For Staff Sgt. Francisco Estrada, the hardest part of the job isn’t the possibility of ground combat,…


