US Central Command officials in Iraq say that a US Air Force F-16 delivered two 500-pound bombs on an “identified, isolated safe house,” killing the al Qaeda brain in Iraq—Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—and one of his key lieutenants. The air strikes...

Air Force Reserve Command officials are not shy about citing budget woes as the reason they must eliminate 7,744 paid positions, beginning in 2008. “It’s not a space or position issue. It’s a money issue,” says Reserve Col. Roxane Towner,...

Americans still hold their military in high regard, according to the latest Gallup Poll. Gallup’s annual survey of public confidence in major American institutions shows that 73 percent have a great deal or a lot of confidence in the US...

A Hint of a Mission for Nashville ANG: BRAC 2005 took away the C-130s of the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 118th Airlift Wing at Nashville, but BRAC commissioners decided to reject the DOD plea to move the people from Nashville...

Saved in Terre Haute: Indiana Air Guardsmen of the 181st Fighter Wing in Terre Haute still have to give up their F-16s (to neighboring Fort Wayne, no less) under BRAC 2005, but they get two new missions in exchange, reports...

Turning in the Old in Iowa: The Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing at Sioux City will be turning in some old iron over the next two years, according to the Sioux City Journal. The wing gets to...

Now There’s a Flight Screening Award: We were a bit premature with our earlier report that Air Education and Training Command had awarded its initial flight-screening contract to Doss Aviation of Colorado Springs, Colo. First, the award had to clear...

The Other Shoe Could Drop: When Ken Krieg, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, decided to save the costly and technologically immature National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, he told lawmakers that prime contractor Northrop Grumman could be canned if it doesn’t...

Come Around Again: Boeing officials are ready to start over with their piece of the NPOESS pie—the only piece to be cut out—reports Dow Jones Newswires. The Pentagon, in its restructuring plan for the new environmental satellite, has eliminated a...

Robins Team To Adapt C-141 Methods to C-5: With the official retirement of the C-141 now passed, the 402nd Maintenance Group software support team at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia is adapting its 141-process to the huge C-5...

They have been in the Southwest Asia theater only since January, but the first two production Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles already have flown 50 missions totaling more than 1,000 combat hours, Northrop Grumman said June 5. The two UAVs...

Army leaders have decided to cut down on the number of service uniforms that its soldiers wear and opted to keep the dress dark blue one, dumping the green and white suits. Soldiers who already own the blue uniform are...

Wilford Hall Medical Center officials have approved the 59th Medical Wing’s Critical Care Air Transport Team Rapid Hurricane Response Plan, designed to prevent a repeat of the 2005 season when two hurricanes wiped out the team’s basic resources. According to...

Airmen from Minot AFB, N.D., recently joined the US Navy and British and Canadian forces, and other NATO allies for Trident Fury—a training exercise held off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. In this exercise comprising more than 2,000 personnel,...

June 6, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 6 19 CAS/Armed Recon 34 22 56 Airlift 170 170 Air refueling 37 37 Total 47 28 207 282 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance