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
Members of Team Air Force at this year’s Warrior Games. Photo: MSgt. David Long
This year’s Department of Defense Warrior Games were held June 1 to 9 and hosted by USAF at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. (See “Warriors for Life,” p. 18.)
The Air Force Association was on hand to support the athletes, their caregivers, and families. Led by Vice President of Member and Field Relations Kari Voliva, who also manages AFA’s Wounded Airman Program, AFA did an outstanding job of showing the athletes, their families and friends, and spectators how the association does things “first class.” Numerous volunteers, Voliva, and her AFA team members Sharon Kayira and Christine Brown pulled it all together.
Only Active Duty airmen are eligible to receive funds directly from USAF. But, through corporate and field donations raised in support of AFA’s Wounded Airman Program, Voliva’s team helped raise over $120,000 to cover the Trials and Warrior Games. These funds helped support 25 veterans compete in the Trials. From those 25, eight of the AFA-supported veterans were selected and funded to round out the 40 members who made up Team Air Force.
AFA set up a hospitality tent, loaded with drinks, snacks, and ice cream for the athletes and their families. All were pleased with the support shown to our wounded airmen. I believe that our support played a small part in the success of Team Air Force, which won the most medals, winning 165 over the course of these games (64 more than the nearest competitor, the Navy). Next year’s games are being hosted by SOCOM at MacDill, AFB, Fla.
AFA’s Wounded Airman Program also provided memorial bracelets for all attendees to wear in honor of two fallen heroes who the program had supported throughout previous Warrior Games: Capt. Austin Williamson and Christopher Cochrane.
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
The Air Force’s radar modernization effort for the B-52 Stratofortress entered flight testing recently, a “milestone” for the once over-budget system that senior leaders call the start of a new era for the Cold War bomber.
The Space Force has accepted its first Meadowlands satellite communications jammer from prime contractor L3Harris and is poised to start using the system in operations next year.
Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, head of U.S. Northern Command, told lawmakers that NORTHCOM has no plans to use U.S. cities as “training grounds” as President Donald Trump recently suggested to a room full of his top military leaders.
Two U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers flew with Japanese fighters over the Sea of Japan after a string of Chinese provocations toward Japan—including a joint bomber patrol with Russia—in response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments about Taiwan.
More than a quarter-century after handing over the mission to the Navy, the Air Force is taking the first steps towards taking back over a critical nuclear command, control, and communications function.
Weeks after senior Air Force leaders revealed the service would shed a number of the re-optimization initiatives pursued by their predecessors, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman confirmed the Space Force is retaining all of the space-specific elements of the strategy.
The Air Force plans to conduct more intensive training—and Congress is set to help by boosting funding for exercises and so-called “campaigning” by hundreds of millions of dollars, particularly in the Pacific.
BAE Systems has received a contract worth $1.7 billion to produce laser-guidance kits for the 2.75-inch rockets the Air Force relies on for a wide range of combat missions.
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