Air Mobility Command wants to put its new C-17 forces through short-field combat landing training using the Grant County Airport in Moses Lake, Wash. This is the same site used by C-17s assigned to McChord AFB, Wash. The new forces include Air Force Reserve Command’s 452nd Air Mobility Wing at March ARB, Calif., which received its eight C-17s in 2006, and AMC’s 60th AMW at Travis AFB, Calif., which is to receive the last of its 13 C-17s in 2008. According to a draft environmental impact statement (caution: large file), AMC plans to construct an assault runway either at Travis or at the former George Air Force Base in California—but not until 2008. Meanwhile, it needs a training site. A Travis civil engineer told the Columbia Basin Herald that the C-17s would use Moses Lake until 2009 or early 2010.
Brig. Gen. Christopher R. Amrhein—an experienced tanker and trainer pilot who helped oversee the Air Force’s flying training enterprise—took command of the Air Force Recruiting Service on June 2. Amrhein succeeds Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, who led AFRS starting June 2020 through a tumultuous time in recruiting. Between the COVID-19 pandemic,…