The BRAC commission will soon strike the tents, start the caravan, and go home. The panel held its final public hearing on Saturday, and its final deliberations end on Aug. 27. President Bush will receive the final recommendations by Sept....

At the final hearing, the Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. John P. Jumper, warned the panel not to meddle with USAF’s recommendations. The package of changes, he said, “represents the last opportunity we will have for a generation to...

Despite criticism from the Guard and the governors, senior Air Force officials say they did, in fact, consult, and made the case for eliminating older aircraft and shifting assets to make units more efficient. Jumper told the commissioners, “We don’t...

BRAC commissioners continued to press Pentagon officials about their proposal to remove all active forces from New England and close Otis ANGB, Mass. DOD offered renewed assurances that the area would be adequately protected with forces based elsewhere. Commissioners seemed...

Tennessee, like several other states that stand to lose their Air National Guard flying units, has filed a lawsuit challenging the Pentagon’s right to realign the 118th Airlift Wing, which flies C-130s from the airport in Nashville, without the governor’s...

Many wonder why Gordon England, the Pentagon’s No. 2, is not a supporter of the F/A-22 fighter. Presumably, he would be a fan; after all, he had been president of Lockheed’s Fort Worth fighter business, which builds part of the...

Perpetual war protestor Joan Baez is back, offering herself to the nation as an anti-Iraq War voice. The folk-singer, who started with Vietnam War protests more than 40 years ago and hasn’t ever really managed to stop, turned up Monday...

The next big thing in the world of the defenserati may be “sea basing.” Last week, Gen. Michael Hagee, Marine Corps Commandant, regaled an American Enterprise Institute crowd with his views on the subject, calling it a set of strike...

Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking at the convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Missouri, called victory in Iraq “critical” and pledged to hunt down insurgents one by one, if necessary.

Loh to USAF: Ellsworth Move “Irresponsible”: Retired Air Force Gen. Mike Loh is making one last effort to help save Ellsworth AFB, S.D., from the BRAC axe. The former Air Force vice chief of staff provided videotaped testimony against the...

When USAF Security Forces deploy to guard Air Force aircraft, they usually do so with guns in hand. Not so for members of the 48th Security Forces Squadron, RAF Lankenheath in Britain, who were sent to secure the eight aircraft...

The US military has been decidedly tight-lipped on the much-touted Chinese/Russian military exercises now underway. But the new commander of the American Pacific Fleet says the Navy is “very interested” in the events transpiring on China’s northeast coast. US Navy...

The Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System Program Office “for the first time ever” gave a coalition partner—Australia—access to space-based infrared data. The data actually came from DOD’s ancient Defense Support Program satellites. It was sent from California to Australia,...

Africa could become a swamp of terror. (Our story is here.) In that huge continent, US forces—airmen, marines, sailors, and soldiers—are engaged in another type of war against terror. There the troops are mainly support units rather than combat forces....

USAF Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dismissed talk of lowered expectations in Iraq. Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, he said war critics are trying to “find some divide” between military leaders in Iraq and Washington...

Air Reserve Personnel Center has selected a total of 2,218 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command officers—out of about 3,200 considered—for advancement to a higher grade. The selection rate for line officers to lieutenant colonel IPZ was 76...

The Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, Ga., received national accreditation from the American Association of Museums. AAM accreditation places the museum in a group of only nine aviation museums in the country that have met the association’s standards of...

Virginia Republican John Warner has the Pentagon squarely on his side in the fight to keep NAS Oceana off the base closure list. The senator on Thursday released a letter signed by Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England that reasserts...

USAF’s Maj. Gen. Gary Heckman, deputy chief for plans and programs, gave a rundown on the service’s force strength at the Aug. 11 BRAC hearing on ANG realignment. Armed with detailed slides, Heckman said that the Air Force for 15...

Well, give him credit for candor. “There is no mandate for anybody to do anything,” said Dyke Weatherington, a top Pentagon official, in an Aug. 17 briefing on DOD’s new Unmanned Aerial Systems’ roadmap. Despite the lofty goals laid out...

More on Gordon England’s new fighter review (DR, 8/15): The study is being carried out by Vienna, Va., consulting firm Whitney, Bradley, & Brown. And they are? Well, they are your typical Beltway Bandits. According to a corporate profile, WBB...

Army Maj. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, the commander of Multinational Force Northwest as well as Task Force Freedom, gave a live briefing to Pentagon reporters Friday from his Iraq headquarters. Rodriguez gave updates on efforts to stop infiltrations from the...

US Air Force A-10s and a Predator unmanned aircraft provided close air support to coalition troops in the vicinity of Asadabad, Afghanistan, Thursday. The A-10s performed an air strike, expending 178 30mm cannon rounds and 11 rockets against insurgents who...

August 18, 2005 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 8 4 – 12 CAS/Armed Recon 54 26 – 80 Airlift – – 150 150 Air refueling – – 34 34 Total 62 30 184 276 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...