We reported that the head of US Transportation Command, USAF Gen. Norton Scwhartz, in testimony last week said that he could use additional C-17s—20 would be his number. That is correct. However, he also said that, from a “combatant command point of view,” he would get more benefit from a hybrid tanker. It would, he said, “give this nation greater payback than does the 181st C-17, the 201st, or certainly the 221st.” Schwartz then declared he could use additional C-17s, but he would like to see them purchased “as a cost of war” in a supplemental, so that the Pentagon could get on with a tanker buy.
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.