South Dakota Republican 
Sen. John Thune claims the Air Force misled the BRAC commission about a federal lawsuit affecting the B-1Bs that fly out of Dyess AFB, Tex. Residents near Dyess filed suit in 2000 over noise along training routes. (Read our story here.) Thune wants to save Ellsworth AFB, S.D., which, under the Pentagon’s BRAC proposals, would shift its B-1B bombers to Dyess and be shut down. He says the lawsuit is more threatening than the Air Force makes it out to be.
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…