At an unnamed forward location, airmen from several different specialties come together to ensure the arrival of new airmen goes smoothly, handling everything from prepositioned C bags and chemical warfare gear to beds and airlift passenger processing. During an Air and Space Expeditionary Force rotation, services airmen bedded down more than 1,400 over a five-day period when they normally would accommodate about 300, reports SrA. Clark Staehle. Over the same five days, air mobility airmen processed more than 5,000 passengers, compared to a typical 2,200.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.