Lt. Col. David Poage, safety chief of the 81st Training Wing at Keesler AFB, Miss., received a Bronze Star medal Jan. 21 for his work as commander of the Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team during an 11-month deployment to Afghanistan last year. As PRT commander, he oversaw 86 service personnel who worked on more than 50 infrastructure projects and carried out more than 300 combat support missions in hostile areas. “Getting the Bronze Star is great, but is only the icing on the cake,” said Poage, a 21-year Air Force veteran. He continued, “I told the troops I was deployed with that awards will be written up and not everyone will receive the Medal of Honor, but we all know what we did here.” (Keesler report by A1C David Salanitri)
Unit commanders are being told to separate service members who can’t shave their cheeks and chin for medical reasons for more than a year, according to new guidance from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
