Multitask-capable flying crew chiefs are key to keeping the highly used C-130s flying in Southwest Asia. “We need to know everything, including engines, navigation, electrical, hydraulics, and fuels,” SrA. Christopher Sutton, an Air Force Reserve Command crew chief from Pennsylvania, told Air Force journalist Maj. Ann Knabe. Another AFRC maintainer, SMSgt. Edward Rife, said, “Fortunately, C-130s are extremely reliable,” but, he added, when they do break, the flying chiefs “come to the rescue.”
Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the director of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program, warned that without the Defense Department’s $350 billion reconciliation request, the homeland missile defense effort is in dire straits.