The Defense Department has announced that Hurlburt Field, Fla., is among the top five defense facilities that will receive the 2009 Commander in Chiefs Installation Excellence Award; Hurlburt plans to use the money that comes with the distinction to upgrade a sports field. ¦ Reports on the pilot test programs run at Peterson AFB, Colo., and Tinker AFB, Okla., to analyze facility workspace under the service’s Space Optimization and Utilization Initiative, or M-6 initiative, which aims to reduce real property square footage and associated maintenance costs by 20 percent each by 2020, are due at headquarters Air Force this week. (Peterson report by Thea Skinner) ¦ According to an April 22 release, Space and Missile Systems Center officials broke ground in late March on a new West Coast command transmitter site at Pillar Point AFS in Half Moon Bay, Calif., to replace one fielded in the 1960s; the Air Force expects the new equipment, including two new 4.7-meter directional antennas and associated 28-foot radomes, to be supporting range safety systems at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., starting in August 2010.
When acting Air Force Secretary Gary A. Ashworth rescinded service-wide “Family Days” last week citing the need to build readiness, he left it up to commanders, directors, and supervisors to decide if they would still permit extra days off. Here’s how Air Force major commands are taking that guidance.