Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, has become the first forward-deployed expeditionary base to get a first sexual assault response coordinator. The move is part of USAF’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program. It aims to ensure that deployed personnel have specialists on base to handle sexual assault reports and offer support for victims. A key component of the SAPR program, which stood up in June, is that victims can now make confidential reports of sexual assault without notifying the chain of command or the office of special investigations. That is a factor that may cause numbers of reported assaults to increase. By some estimates, 80 percent of assaults go unreported.
The Air Force displayed all the firepower it has amassed on Okinawa in an unusually diverse show of force this week. IIn a May 6 “Elephant Walk,” Kadena Air Base showcased 24 F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters, eight F-15E Strike Eagles; two U.S. Army Patriot anti-missile batteries near the runway; and…