Daily Report

May 19, 2009

Controller Receives Two Bronze Stars with Valor

The Air Force has awarded a marine turned airman two Bronze Stars with Valor for his actions while deployed to Afghanistan in 2007. MSgt. Kenneth Huhman said he switched from the Marine Corps to the Air Force in 1996 so he could partake of combat controller "mission opportunities." In 2007, on his second tour as an airman to the region, he deployed from Air Force Special Operations Command's 23rd Special Tactics Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., with the Army Special Forces Operational Det. Alpha, serving principally in the Kandahar region. During one mission in September of that year, Huhman directed close-in airstrikes against an enemy striking his team from two directions, repeatedly exposing himself to fire as he orchestrated strike and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance aircraft over a 26-hour period to coordinate the team's escape. During the intense action, in the middle of which his GPS unit broke, Huhman continued directing air support; he also personally killed 41 enemy fighters. During a mission in November, as the Special Forces team conducted reconnaissance on an enemy strongpoint, Huhman identified seven Taliban fighters setting up a mortar and called in close air support to take them out. As the mission continued and the team engaged in a firefight, a round hitting near Huhman temporarily blinded him, but he continued to call in air strikes, using the "aircraft as my eyes." Just as his sight returned, he saw a Taliban fighter pop out of a doorway with an RPG launcher trained on the team's convoy; he quickly fired one 84 mm rifle shot before engaging with his M4 Carbine. This firefight lasted 11 hours, during which Huhman's CAS calls emptied the ammunition on two F-18 fighters and one AC-130 gunship. Before the mission ended, he called in one more precision airstrike that eliminated high-level Taliban leaders meeting in a nearby cave. Huhman said of his exploits, "Any controllers in that position would have done the same things." He currently is one of 12 special tactics airmen augmenting the recruiting service and one prospective controllers "are going to listen to what he has to say," said Capt. Steve Cooper, a 23rd STS team leader, because "he's definitely walked the walk." (AFSOC report by Capt. Amy Cooper)

JASSM on the Chopping Block Again

Just when program officials must have thought the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile’s problems were over, the program once again is in a do or die situation. The Fiscal 2010 defense budget contains no new JASSM production money, but defense officials...

Pushing Ahead on Hickam’s Short Runway?

According to a brief report by the Honolulu Advertiser, Air Force and Hawaii Air National Guard officials are trying to resurrect construction of an assault landing runway at the joint use Kona International Airport. Pacific Air Forces believes it can...

Marines Want Gunship-Like Capability

Commandant Gen. James Conway says the Marine Corps has launched Harvest Hawk to provide it with a gunship-like capability aboard its KC-130J transport-tankers as a short-term fix for fire support needed by marines on the ground, according to a CongressDaily...

Rising PTSD Among Airmen

The Air Force Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. James Roudebush, testifying last week, said the Air Force is “seeing an increasing number of airmen with [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder].” However, he told the House Armed Services military personnel panel that the service’s...

No Tricare Fee Hike

The Fiscal 2010 defense budget does not—repeat does not—contain a provision to increase the Tricare fees for retired military personnel, unlike the past three defense budgets in which the Bush Administration tried to raise fees as one means to offset...

Navy, USAF Team to Train Finn Pilots

Finnish Air Force pilots have been flying F-18 Hornets since the mid-1990s, but they largely did not have air-to-air refueling experience. To rectify that situation, the US Navy sent F-18 pilots and USAF sent 10 airmen from the 100th Air...

Anti-Flu Flight

A C-17 from Air Mobility Command’s 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston AFB, S.C., delivered 30,000 H1N1 personal flu prevention kits to six South American countries in early May. The US Southern Command-sponsored program was a preventive measure intended to enable...

Housing Relief

The Defense Department has temporarily expanded the Housing Assistance Program with a $555 million boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help military members who have trouble selling their primary residence in the midst of the economic downturn....

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest Asia

May 14-15, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 55 42 97 5,404 CAS/Armed Recon 48 134 182 13,182 Airlift 300 300 18,364 Air refueling 91 91 5,965 Total 670 42,915 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...