Air Force optometry specialists treated nearly 1,600 military personnel from Burundi, Africa, who were to deploy on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The airmen had deployed to Gakumbu military base from Ramstein and Spangdahlem Air Bases in Germany. Peacekeeping trainers realized there was a problem when the Burundi soldiers scored poorly in weapons qualifications accuracy beyond 50 meters. The Air Force team—Maj. Craig McCluer and TSgt. Luis Gonzalez from Spangdahlem and Capt. Michael Sapp and SrA. Dale King from Ramstein—had four days to get their equipment together.
Just over a year ago, in July 2025, the Air Force established a dedicated office on the Air Staff for communications/cyber functions, separate from the intelligence directorate it had long been attached to. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Phillips, Deputy Chief of Staff for Warfighter Communications and Cyber Systems, recently sat…