One of the two bases at the core of USAF’s Bent Spear misadventure last year will undergo a nuclear surety inspection this month, but the prime inspectee will be the space wing not the bomb wing. Air Force Space Command will conduct a routine NSI of the 91st Space Wing, which, reports the Minot Daily News, involves some review of 5th Bomb Wing support to the other wing. However, the Air Combat Command-conducted NSI of the 5th BW will take place separately on an as-yet-unknown date. ACC does plan to conduct a Unit Compliance Inspection, a three-year check of paperwork and regulations, this month. Following an Air Force review of the Bent Spear incident, ACC relieved several commanders of their jobs and decertified the 5th Bomb Wing from its wartime mission, pending the NSI and related reviews. We have yet to hear results of a DOD-directed independent review.
Gene Smith, Former POW and AFA Chair, Dies at 91
Jan. 19, 2026
Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, who overcame five and a half years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton from 1967 until 1973, died Jan. 16. He was one day short of his 91st birthday.
