SSgt. Jessica Kuge, a videographer stationed at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., has received a Bronze Star medal for her documentation of 40 combat and humanitarian missions during a 143-day deployment to Iraq in 2006. A1C Erica Stewart reports that Kuge continued to document an insurgent ambush while she was under direct fire, aiding battle damage assessment and aiding identification of Iraqi policemen killed in the attack. Much of her work in Iraq supported US Army patrols and convoys.
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.