Daily Report

USAF mobility forces for the past four months have bettered their own records for cargo airdropped, while the overall pace for cargo and passengers delivered and aerial tanker fuel offloaded has soared from spring throughout the summer to meet increasing...

USAF has been working to ramp up its cadre of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers since before the operational surge began in Iraq and now with increased demands for Afghanistan, defense officials are calling for even more JTACs—from every service. Navy...

Maj. Sam Tucker, grandson of a World War II-era B-17 navigator, recently compiled 1,000 combat flying hours in the backseat of an F-15E Strike Eagle during a sortie over Afghanistan. Tucker, who is a Weapons Systems Officer deployed from the...

One of the Air Force’s high-flying U-2 reconnaissance aircraft has now exceeded more than 25,000 flying hours, reaching that number during an Oct. 18 sortie over Southwest Asia. While aircraft No. 068-0337 is the second U-2 to reach this marker—the...

As we reported Monday, TSgt. Michael Williams received a Bronze Star with Valor last week for his actions while deployed to Afghanistan, his seventh deployment to Southwest Asia. Although he had lost the lower portion of his left leg to...

The German Air Force Flying Training Center at Holloman AFB, N.M., earlier this month celebrated completion of 55,555 flight hours with their Tornado fighters. The German airmen shared the milestone celebration with their hosts the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman,...

USAF airmen deployed to Transit Center at Manas in Kyrgyzstan conducted a ceremony earlier this month to thank members of the Spanish detachment at Manas as they departed the facility, where the detachment began operations in 2002 and continued in...

On Oct. 16, TSgt. Rudy Moreno, a member of the 355th Fighter Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., received an Army Bronze Star Medal for his leadership actions during convoy operations throughout Iraq while he was deployed to work with the...

The Defense Department selected SrA. Joshua Livingston with the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron, 90th Missile Wing, at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., as the Firefighter of the Year. Among his achievements, he saved the life of an infant in respiratory distress,...

Richard T. Whitcomb, famed aviation engineer who developed the so-called “Area Rule” that overcame drag problems in transonic flight, died of pneumonia last week at age 88, reports the Los Angeles Times. Whitcomb, a National Advisory Committee for Aviation (predecessor...

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, Oct. 14-15, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 48 63 111 13,198 CAS/Armed Recon 46 162 208 28,037 Airlift 289 289 38,322 Air refueling 101 101 13,861 Total 709 93,418 OIF=Operation Iraqi...