The crews that fly, operate, and maintain USAF’s E-8C Joint STARS ground surveillance aircraft have reached a milestone 1,000 sorties for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Dec. 4 flight “wasn’t the longest, shortest, busiest, or slowest,” but it marked “another outstanding performance,” says Lt. Col. Timothy Manning, commander of the 16th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron, in the Desert Eagle. He said the credit goes to all three Joint STARS units from Robins AFB, Ga., that have taken turns flying missions over Iraq since 2003.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
