Air Force Space Command will be deploying civilian logistician Michele Kantak—at her request—to Southwest Asia in January to serve as a base-level planner. It’s not the first time AFSPC has sent a civilian volunteer—David King served 133 days in SWA earlier this year—but sending a civilian is not entirely up to the civilian. Each unit has to be able to fund overtime pay for a minimum of 32 hours per week. “Right now, most units can’t fund the [civilian] request because it’s just too large of a bill,” says Kantak.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent direction that the military services return to a more old-school approach to basic training—with instructors "tossing bunks" and "putting their hands on recruits”—will likely require the Air Force to rewrite policies for military training instructors it has modified over time to cut down on such…