Whiteman Reservists Touch Down in Afghanistan: Airmen from Air Force Reserve Command’s 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., have arrived at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, with their A-10 Warthogs to conduct air-to-ground missions. The first six aircraft maintainers and pilots arrived last week as the advance party for an untold number of additional 442nd FW airmen. Some of these Reservists remember Bagram from a 2002 deployment, when they performed aircraft maintenance out of two tents. Now, there are “actual buildings,” said CMSgt. Steve Brazeal.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.