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
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, one of two National Guard members shot in a Washington, D.C., attack, will soon be awarded the Purple Heart.
More stealthy U.S. fighter jets moved closer to the Middle East on Feb. 9, with a half dozen F–35A Lightning II fifth-generation planes landing at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., after crossing the Atlantic, flight tracking data and air traffic control communications show.
The first T-7A trainer jet touched down at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph nearly two months ago to a welcome celebration filled with proclamations about the aircraft's future. Now, for the next 20 months or so 14 pilots and two weapon systems officers with the 99th Flying Training Squadron are mastering the T-7s every idiosyncrasy.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
Leadership at the U.S. Air Force Academy is getting an overhaul as both Superintendent Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind and Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Gavin Marks will retire later this year and a new dean of faculty, Col. James Valpiani, is set to take charge of the instructors.
A few weeks after the Air Force announced its prestigious William Tell Air-to-Air Weapons Meet would return in March, the service has decided to postpone the event to later this year, according to Air Combat Command.
Raytheon, a division of defense giant RTX, recently announced a multiyear deal with the Pentagon to increase annual production of the Air Force’s primary dogfighting missile by more than 50 percent from two years ago.
The Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s commercial technology hub, plans to demonstrate low-cost, commercially derived missile defense sensors on orbit within the next two years, according to a new notice to industry.
The Air Force has kicked off its search for a used airliner it can convert into a new C-40 VIP airlifter. Congress added $250 million to the 2026 budget for the effort.
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