The Air Force Reserve Command plans to translate its traditional associate unit role—supplying airmen to fly and maintain active-duty aircraft—to the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The reserve manpower that will share in operating and maintaining equipment at the space ops center will come from the 939th Air Refueling Wing, which must give up its KC-135 tankers and close up shop in Portland, Ore.
Air Force F-16 pilot Lt. Col. Eric R. Emerson, who commanded a small quick reaction force of fighters responding to Iranian-backed militia groups in 2024, became the first Air National Guardsman presented with the Anthony C. Shine Award on Feb. 10.
