During the latest Koa Lightning exercise, which featured B-52 bombers flying from Andersen AFB, Guam, to Hawaii, the bomber crews got to drop inert weapons on the Pele Bombing Range. TSgt. Steven Wilson reports that the aircrews received targeting information from joint terminal attack controllers on the ground. “Absolutely nothing beats dropping ordnance on a target in terms of training value, especially for our younger aircrews,” stated Col. Damian McCarthy, 36th Operations Group commander at Andersen. The bombers have been deployed to Andersen from Barksdale AFB, La.
The Air Force has dispatched an element of its Natural Disaster Recovery Team to Guam in the wake of Super Typhoon Mawar, which has caused widespread damage on the island and at Andersen Air Force Base. The team will assess the damage and put together a recovery cost estimate for…