The first KC-135 tanker aircraft with the 939th Air Refueling Wing to depart its home base at Portland, Ore., for the last time took wing July 14, marking the first step toward fulfillment of the unit’s BRAC 2005 obligation. The 939th ARW will lose all eight of its aircraft and 900 authorized positions, most by September 2007. The wing’s executive staff and mission support personnel are expected to remain in Portland until Sept. 30, 2010. Air Force Reserve Command plans to secure a new space mission for the 939th and move it to Vandenberg AFB, Calif., beginning in October 2010.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.