T
he Air Force has a new cartoonist to depict the (mis)adventures of a fighter pilot. However, unlike the heroic “Steve Canyon” of World War II fames, the fictional “1st Lt. Kenneth Dahl” is more in the genre of “Beetle Bailey.” Dahl, call sign “Barbie,” is the creation of SSgt. Austin May, a public affairs specialist at Laughlin AFB, Tex. The sergeant has been producing the Dahl comics since February 2007 online and last fall collected many of them into a book, titled Air Force Blues. Dahl is not May’s first Air Force “hero;” the cartoonist produced his first “AWACer” comic strip while he served as an airborne battle management systems operator on an E-3 AWACS. (Joint Task Force-Bravo report by TSgt. Sonny Cohrs)
A combined Navy and Air Force program is seeking to build a smaller version of a ubiquitous air-to-air missile that could give advanced aircraft, such as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, greater magazine depth in a high-end fight.