The Community College of the Air Force, part of Air University at Maxwell AFB, Ala., now has its first enlisted vice commandant, CMSgt. Joseph Thornell, an Air National Guardsman from South Dakota. He has been serving as the CCAF’s senior enlisted manager but last month took a post previously only filled by an active duty lieutenant colonel. According to Air Education and Training Command’s top enlisted member, Command CMSgt. Mark Luzader, “This is one of the many initiatives by Air University to transform and enrich enlisted education and training.” Thornell will not be the only enlisted leader for CCAF; he says that AU plans to install a chief master sergeant as CCAF commandant to “align all of the enlisted programs for education, militarily, with a chief master sergeant at the helm.” (National Guard Bureau report by TSgt. Mike Smith)
Senior U.S. lawmakers expressed frustration that they are being cut out of some of the Trump administration’s most central decisions on military policy and spending. Their concerns, which are shared on both sides of the aisle, concern the budget reconciliation process as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to slash…