“Grave Digger,” a 27th Special Operations Wing AC-130H gunship rolled off the flightline at Cannon AFB, N.M., directly to a retirement job on display in the base’s air park earlier this month. “The maintenance and civil engineer airmen made this happen. This was all of their efforts today; I’m just glad I had the privilege to be out here,” said Lt. Col. James Mott, 16th Special Operations Squadron commander in a release. Cannon’s 16th SOS received its first AC-130 gunships when the unit transferred from Hurlburt Field, Fla., back in 2009. AC-130H, serial number 69-6572, recently retired as part of Air Force Special Operations Command’s overall AC-130 and MC-130 fleet recapitalization. AFSOC’s first AC-130J Ghostrider gunship flew for the first time this February and the service plans to purchase a total of 32 of the new generation gunships.
A recent seven-day exercise sent Air Force F-22s—along with other USAF aircraft—to austere, challenging environments across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Agile Reaper, taking place for the second time after its inaugural edition last year, featured 800 Airmen and 29 aircraft across five different locations from April 10-16, training…