Close to 100 Percent on NCO Retraining: Air Force Personnel Center officials say the 2006 non-commissioned officer retraining program achieved 95 percent of its goal, making it the “most successful” effort to date. One thing that spurred NCOs to retrain into shortage career fields was the new Air Force policy that vulnerable individuals either retrain or get out. Some 36 NCOs who did not apply for retraining as requested now must separate from the service. Officials note that two of the 36 had been selected for promotion to technical sergeant but will not be able to pin on that rank.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…