Settling a dispute that has run over a year, the Las Cruces City Council voted Monday to accept an offer of $603,754 from the Air Force to repair the city’s airport runway that was damaged by a USAF C-17 carrying equipment for a Presidential visit. Loaded with vehicles and equipment, the airlifter caused a half-mile of ruts on the runway, which had been softened in the desert heat, when it landed on Aug. 26, 2004. The city filed a $2.1 million claim last November against the Air Force, saying that officials with the Las Cruces airport reportedly told the White House that the runway could not handle the weight.
A dozen and a half Air Force Reservists formally transferred to the Space Force on July 15, becoming the new service’s first 18 part-time Guardians. The move is the culmination of more than two and a half years of work to create a system unlike any other military branch.