Air Mobility Command has named Maj. Gen. James A. Hawkins to command 18th Air Force, Scott AFB, Ill. Currently Hawkins is director of operations at AMC headquarters. He is a 1973 West Point graduate and a bomber pilot whom, in 1994, flew as instructor pilot on a 47-hour, around-the-world, non-stop B-52 flight. He has commanded the 319th Air Refueling Wing, 89th Airlift Wing, and the Tanker Airlift Control Center.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...