A Truly Historical Mission

Andrew Billman is one of three Air Force historians in Afghanistan tasked with documenting the service’s role in the United States’ longest war for future generations. From his office at Kandahar Airfield, Billman collects between 5,000 and 10,000 documents a month on all the missions conducted by the members of Kandahar’s 451st Air Expeditionary Wing. For particularly significant missions, he also interviews the wing commander, vice commander, and mission participants. Transcripts from those interviews are included with the rest of the documents that he collects and then attaches to a roughly 75-page monthly classified report that is passed on to 9th Air Force and the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Billman told the Daily Report in a mid-July interview. Click here for the full report.