Among governors who have made trips to Southwest Asia to visit with deployed military members are Tim Pawlenty from Minnesota and Janet Napolitano of Arizona. The two were at Balad AB, Iraq, last week on a tour with National Guard Bureau chief Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum. Pawlenty got to meet with airmen from the Minnesota ANG’s 148th Fighter Wing. Meanwhile, Napolitano visited the Air Force Theater Hospital and talked with Air Force maintainers and rescue personnel, as well as soldiers in an Army transportation unit.
NATO Allied Air Command is making moves now for its member nations’ air forces to be able to service each others’ fighters, fly them with each others’ weapons, and integrate more closely together than they have in decades, a top official said April 24—ahead of an influx of F-35s and a coming…