Chilton Tapped for AFSPC:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld put the rampant speculation about the fate of Air Force Space Command to rest Friday when he announced President Bush has nominated Lt. Gen. Kevin P. Chilton to receive a fourth star and head Air Force...

Putting CROWS to Work:

Air Force Security Forces airmen at Kirkuk AB, Iraq, are testing a new machine gun system—Common Remote Operated Weapon Station—that enables them to remain inside a armored Humvee instead of having to stand in an external gun turret to fire...

Mobility Airmen Employ New Parachute Device:

Airmen attending the Joint Forcible Entry Exercise at Pope AFB, N.C., recently used a new emergency parachute jettison device for the first time. In development since 1997, the new tool was created to quickly and safely jettison malfunctioning parachutes during...

Tyndall Gains Maintenance Raptor:

Airmen undergoing F-22A Raptor maintenance training now will be using their own dedicated stealth fighter for training instead of “borrowing” an operational Raptor. The Air Force delivered an F-22A that had been used as a test aircraft to the F-22...

Working Toward Another NORAD?:

The long-running joint Canadian-American Bi-national Planning Group has recommended enhanced cooperation and information sharing and development of “deliberate plans” to further joint security and civil support. In its some 160-page final report released last week, the group endorses creation of...

NASA Rocket Blasts off from Vandenberg:

A Delta II rocket successfully launched into orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., April 28, carrying NASA’s Cloud Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder and Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) and CloudSat satellites. The launch marked the third this month for Vandenberg’s 30 Space...

Unusual Problem Sparks Help Call:

An Air Force KC-135 tanker flying over North Dakota earlier this year had a problem with a refueling boom—it wouldn’t retract and a blizzard was forming. According to The Wichita Eagle, the aircrew and Air Force personnel on the ground...

Civic Leaders Get Eyeful of USAF Ops:

On the recent Joint Civilian Orientation Course trip through US Central Command’s area of operations, the civic leaders got briefed on the Air Force’s standard—air strikes, close air support, cargo and troop hauling, and ISR—and not-so-standard—direct ground combat support operations—contributions...

Battlelab Delivers SAVe:

The Air Force’s Force Protection Battlelab has created a prototype device—the simplified automated ventilator, or SAVe—to aid medics in the field. A medic in the field can quickly set up the portable battery-powered ventilator to help one wounded troop breathe,...

Frist Backs Veto:

The Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), has been unable to get Senators to eliminate the nearly $15 billion they added to the 2006 emergency supplemental bill to support the war on terror and hurricane recovery. The Congressional newspaper The...

Pilot Who Flew JFK’s Body Dies:

Retired Col. James Swindal, who was the pilot for Air Force One that flew the body of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy from Dallas to Washington, died last week at age 88 from complications arising from a broken hip. According to...

State Releases Terror Report:

The Global War on Terror is making the world a safer place, despite the more than 11,000 terrorist attacks recorded worldwide last year that killed 14,602 people, according to the US State Department, which released its annual Country Reports on...

Air Sorties in the Global War on Terrorism

April 27, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 15 6 21 CAS/Armed Recon 34 20 54 Airlift 150 150 Air refueling 36 36 Total 49 26 186 261 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance