Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta paid a visit to Lackland AFB, Tex., specifically to extend his thanks to the base’s airmen for their role in transporting and aiding evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In a 55-hour period during the Katrina evacuation, Lackland took in 9,788 evacuees on 89 aircraft. During Rita, the base processed 1,133 evacuees and set up a 24-hour reception center. Mineta called it the “largest domestic airlift in United States history.” He added, “How reassuring it must have been, knowing that they were in the hands of our nation’s finest, the men and women of Team Lackland.”
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.