Eighteen Delaware Air National Guardsmen from the 142nd Airlift Squadron of the 166th Airlift Wing have reached an incredible milestone—one rarely attained by active duty aircrews—more than 5,000 hours of flying time in the C-130H. “These crews are among the most experienced in the world,” Col. Daniel Van Wyk told the Wilmington News Journal. Delaware ANG personnel have been involved in more than 8,000 missions across the Southwest Asia theater in the past three years. MSgt. Gerald Luce told the Journal that when he joined in 1982, ANG fliers were treated like “some sort of private flying club.” He added, now “they call us first when something needs to be done.”
After years of describing to lawmakers and Pentagon leaders the nature of that threat and the key role spacepower plays in deterring conflict in the domain and enabling the rest of the joint force, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters during AFA’s Warfare Symposium here that the message appears to…