SrA. Sarah McRae has managed to amass 1,000 combat hours as an airborne maintenance technician—a feat that in normal times would take such techs eight years. SSgt. Mike Andriacco reports McRae did it in two. She is with the 41st Electronic Combat Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., and reached the thousand hour mark while deployed to Afghanistan. Squadron commander Lt. Col. Richard Fojtik credits McRae and her cohorts with keeping the EC-130H Compass Call aircraft at a phenomenal 97 percent mission capable rate over the past four years.
The Pentagon released its new National Defense Strategy late Jan. 23, emphasizing a new commitment to the Western Hemisphere. But while that focus garnered most of the headlines, the strategy’s subtle shifts on China raise questions about how the Trump administration aims to leverage U.S. military power in the Indo-Pacific.
