Thirteen airmen currently are living and working on the Pacific island of Palau, helping to build infrastructure and provide a favorable presence for the US military. An Air Force team sent to the island in 2004 began building a search and rescue station on one of Palau’s islands, and the new team completed it, reducing the time it takes to get injured people to medical care. Another project will build a rec center for the Palau Community College. The current airmen are only the second Air Force team to participate in the Palau humanitarian work since it began in the 1970s, reports MSgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.

