The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey fleet surpassed 25,000 flight hours on March 9, when a crew from the first Osprey student class at the 71st Special Operations Squadron at Kirtland AFB, N.M. flew a two-hour qualification flight, according to Bell-Boeing officials at a Washington defense conference Wednesday. Air Force Special Operations Command’s 71st SOS became the Air Force’s inaugural CV-22 unit back in 2005. Gene Cunningham, Boeing Vice President and deputy V-22 program director, told Air Force Magazine he expects delivery of CV-10—AFSOC’s 10th Osprey—to Kirtland this month, with 11 CV-22s scheduled to roll off the line this year in total.
Gene Smith, Former POW and AFA Chair, Dies at 91
Jan. 19, 2026
Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, who overcame five and a half years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton from 1967 until 1973, died Jan. 16. He was one day short of his 91st birthday.
