Lt. Col. Sam Milam, commander of the 75th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and deployed from Moody AFB, Ga., amassed 3,000 combat flying hours during a Feb. 28, 2009, sortie out of Bagram AB, Afghanistan, according to a March 5 photo release; a week earlier, he also flew on the unit’s 10,000th combat flight hour sortie. n A1C Jimmy Farias, deployed from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, to Afghanistan, set a record for most fuel pumped within 52 days, providing 1,001,978 gallons to 428 coalition aircraft, according to a March 2 photo release. n On Feb. 20, Lt. Col. Brenda Cartier became the first female flying squadron commander in Air Force Special Operations Command when she took leadership of the 4th Special Operations Squadron, an AC-130U Spooky gunship unit at Hurlburt Field, Fla., per a Feb. 23 Hurlburt release.
Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, warned that Russia would remain an enduring threat to NATO and global security, regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine.