2017 AFA ALMANAC

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org Retired Col. Charles B. “Chuck” DeBellevue, an Air Force combat ace...

Lt. Col George E. Hardy, last combat pilot from among the famed Tuskegee Airmen, died Sept. 25 at the age of 100. He was a combat pilot veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

Retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein and former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson share leadership lessons from air combat to the halls of Congress.

“The United States government is once again careening toward a government shutdown as lawmakers play chicken over legislation that would keep the government running. In doing so, Congress is putting politics ahead of common sense and political theater ahead of its fundamental responsibility to fund government operations,” writes retired Lt.…

Retired Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman and Brig. Gen. Ross C. Detwiler, former Misty FACs, reflected on their time flying high-risk missions over Vietnam during a recent Heritage Foundation event hosted at the Joint Base Andrews Air Show.

Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War. 

Joint Base Andrews opened its flightline this month to thousands of civilians, exposing a normally restricted airbase that regularly hosts the president and foreign dignitaries to a curious public eager to see current and historic military aircraft up close and in action. 

B-17 pilot John "Lucky" Luckadoo passed away Sept. 1, having spent much of his life sharing the story of the 100th Bomb Group in World War II.

The F-15C Eagle flown by Cesar “Rico” Rodriguez when he downed two Iraqi MiGs in the 1991 Gulf War has been delivered to the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., where it will go on permanent display in the coming weeks. It’s the first F-15 to be displayed…