Four airm
en deployed for a year to Forward Operating Base Lagman in Afghanistan are maintaining more than 30 Army vehicles, keeping them ready for every mission conducted by the Qalat Provincial Reconstruction Team, reports SSgt. Trevor Tiernan. The airmen are serving in-lieu-of soldiers, but they are serving in their specialties. TSgt. Dave Albanese and SSgt. Joel Bonnett are vehicle mechanics, while TSgt. James Nelson handles logistics and SSgt. Logan Pike works vehicle dispatch. The two mechanics have even made “house calls,” going outside the wire to fix vehicles that succumbed to the rough terrain and couldn’t be driven back to base. They had the vehicles on the road again within three hours. Army Sgt. Benjamin House with the Arizona National Guard calls the airmen mechanics “mission essential.”
Pentagon officials overseeing homeland counter-drone strategy told lawmakers that even with preliminary moves to bolster U.S. base defenses, the military still lacks the capability to comprehensively identify, track, and engage hostile drones like those that breached the airspace of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for 17 days in December…