Ten years ago this week, the US and NATO allies launched Deliberate Force, a significant airpower assault on renegade Bosnian Serbs who were running amok, killing Muslims in the Yugoslav rump state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The three-week air campaign, shaped and conducted by USAF Gen. Michael Ryan (later to become Chief of Staff in 1997) forced the Serbs to down weapons and make peace in talks at Dayton, Ohio. Read our 1997 article here. Deliberate Force, bracketed between Desert Storm (1991) and Allied Force (1999) doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing helped save 11 airplane crash survivors off the coast of Florida on May 12. The Reserve Airmen were flying an HC-130J Combat King II and an HH-60W Jolly Green II on a routine training flight when a Coast Guard call diverted…