The Air Force plans to move all field training for ROTC cadets to Maxwell AFB, Ala., this summer. Part of the Maxwell curriculum will include deployment and expeditionary training, utilizing Maxwell’s Blue Thunder Training Complex and the Joint Force Training Center in Hattiesburg, Miss., each for six days of the summer encampments. Maj. John Carros, Air Force ROTC chief of training, said that “biggest challenge” has been securing airlift from Alabama to Mississippi. Air Force Reserve Command’s 908th Airlift Wing at Maxwell has committed to the effort, but Carros said ROTC officials are seeking help from other air mobility units, too. To offset a shortage of dorm rooms, officials are overlapping training in 2008, but they expect to expand dorm capacity for future encampments. (Air University report by Carl Bergquist)
Misawa Air Base welcomed its first permanently assigned F-35A fighters March 28, marking the first time the Air Force has based F-35s in Japan.