Airmen of Air Force Reserve Command’s 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown ARB, Ohio, are flying out of Barksdale AFB, La., to cover areas of Louisiana with insect spray to keep down flies and mosquitoes in the wake of heavy rainfall and flooding after Hurricane Ike, according to a Sept. 22 Barksdale release. The wing’s spray-modified C-130s, which deployed to Barksdale over the weekend, started the spraying operation on Sept. 21. The plan worked out with the Federal Emergency Management Agency was for the unit to blanket southwestern Louisiana and then move to other areas hard hit by the storm.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.