Air Force battlefield airmen and fighters and bombers have been using three towns in Louisiana to practice urban air strike skills. The towns of Deridder, Leesville, and Oakdale volunteered to let the Air Force conduct urban combat air support training—providing today’s real-world type environment. Such crowded urban areas have “made it difficult for controllers to coordinate with aircraft” to strike enemy forces and avoid killing civilians and inflicting collateral damage, said Lt. Col. Frank Corley III, 548th Combat Training Squadron commander. Corley told Air Force journalist MSgt. Jack Braden that typical military training facilities lacked the actual urban density needed for realistic training and Louisiana has “a very friendly populace” that was “more than willing to cooperate.”
Airmen and Guardians in the Active and Reserve component, as well as civilian employees, in “mission critical and high-risk populations” are now required to receive influenza vaccinations annually to “preserve force readiness,” according to a recent Department of the Air Force memo.