Okinawa residents expected to have enough people to ring Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa during a weekend protest, but their numbers fell short of their 20,000-person goal by nearly 5,000, reports Stars and Stripes. Many island residents have complained for years about the growing military presence and the noise generated by USAF aircraft. The latter complaint prompted the US Air Force to send Kadena F-15s to Japan for a recent exercise.
B-52 Stratofortress bombers marked a new first in Operation Epic Fury when some of the BUFFs flew over Iran carrying JDAM-guided gravity bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. The development signals a weakening of Iranian air defenses and a new use for the venerable bomber in the nearly…