Air Force and Army engineers have shepherded a new runway project for Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan for about two years, formally opening the $68 million project Dec. 20. The old Russian-built runway required daily repair and simply was not up to the high volume of traffic seen at this central Afghan hub. Coalition and Afghan officials opened the new runway, built by an Egyptian company using workers from Egypt and Afghanistan. It’s longer and thicker to accommodate even the behemoth C-5 airlifter and jumbo jets.
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…