The Air Force has sent its first production Global Hawk UAVs to Southwest Asia. Previously, the service employed development models of the high-flying reconnaissance aircraft for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. USAF contracted for only nine production RQ-4A vehicles, which...

The strategic value of Andersen AFB, Guam, is center stage once again for US military planners, giving rise to a major overhaul. The Pacific region facility has been the site of continuous bomber and fighter rotations for the past year...

A Hangar For All Seasons: The new hangar USAF built at Andersen AFB, Guam, is typical of the type of construction being planned for Andersen, according to Lt. Col. Marvin Smith, 36th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron commander. It was built...

2007 Cuts Were Trial Balloon?: The Quadrennial Defense Review is still circulating among senior Pentagon officials, but it must be close enough to a final product that DOD is willing to let some folks—key contributor Ryan Henry, for one—talk on...

Not too many people assume an Airman Basic can identify the components of an M-16, field-strip, clean, and reassemble the standard rifle with ease. Yet that’s exactly what’s about to happen with basic training graduates. Air Education and Training Command...

Retired Col. Edward N. Hall, the Air Force rocket expert who is credited with pulling together the concept for the Minuteman ICBM, died Jan. 15, 2006, in Torrance, Calif., at 91. Hall joined the Army Air Forces on Sept. 26,...

DOD Backs Down on NSPS: Pentagon officials have scaled back their timeline for the new performance-based payroll system, reducing the number of employees sought for the program’s first phase to 11,000. DOD originally scheduled the first phase of the National...

Hank Polk, an Air Education and Training Command communications and information planner and project manager, has signed up to deploy with Air and Space Expeditionary Force 1/2 destined for Al Udeid AB, Qatar, in May. Officials say that Polk is...

The Warner Robins Air Logistics Center streamlined its C-5 maintenance overhaul process, cutting work time virtually in half. (The ALC bagged a huge prize for the C-5 effort.) Now ALC officials want to put the same process, called critical chain...

Gen. Tom Hobbins hasn’t been on the job as commander of US Air Forces in Europe long, but he is confident in the direction of the command, reports Air Force journalist MSgt. Chuck Roberts. Hobbins served as USAFE’s director of...

A recent CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll finds that the American public is evenly divided on the issue of troop withdrawal from Iraq. It shows 47 percent of American favor a significant presence of US troops until they achieve the desired goals,...

Imagine a new paint that isn’t a carcinogenic hazard for the painters, is environmentally friendly, and reduces painting time. Air Force Materiel Command and friends at the University of Missouri-Rolla, Boeing, and Deft Industrial Finishes have concocted just such a...

Thirteen airmen currently are living and working on the Pacific island of Palau, helping to build infrastructure and provide a favorable presence for the US military. An Air Force team sent to the island in 2004 began building a search...

January 17, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 3 – 19 CAS/Armed Recon 52 18 – 70 Airlift – – 170 170 Air refueling – – 34 34 Total 68 21 204 293 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...