USAF weather operators paid belated tribute in an Oct. 6 ceremony to an Army Air Forces combat weatherman for his heroic service during the D-Day invasion of France, June 6, 1944. As an 18-year old Army draftee, Eugene Levine became a combat weather observer aboard gliders with the 82nd Airborne Division. On D-Day, he played a vital role in getting communications equipment to the division. Presiding over the ceremony was Brig. Gen. Lawrence Stutzriem, who gave Levine an American flag and a 60th anniversary D-Day medallion. Both items had been carried by 7th Weather Squadron’s SSgt. John Lee, who parachuted into St. Mere Eglise, France, in a 2004 re-enactment of D-Day’s airborne attack.
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.