Medal of Honor recipient and US Air Force legend retired Col. Leo Thorsness got to fly the back seat of an F-16 two-ship flying out of Luke AFB, Ariz., recently, reports the Arizona Republic. The base’s 310th Fighter Squadron invited the 74-year-old, who spent six years as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war, to spend a day with the Luke unit. (Read Air Force Magazine’s June 2005 article “Full Day” about Thorsness.)
The B-52H Stratofortress that crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on June 15 was helping test a new advanced radar that is key to a sweeping modernization of the six-decade old bomber.