According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “It is not an overstatement to say that as goes the health of the reserve component, so goes the health of the all-volunteer force.” In its Phase III report from the...

Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) the committee’s ranking member, penned a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, complaining that DOD’s policies on when it is appropriate to wear a...

Combined Air Operations Component officials quickly organized a supply airdrop for US Army soldiers in Afghanistan facing an imminent attack by Taliban forces. The CAOC tapped a C-130 crew that had just flown its last sortie on a 30-day forward...

The first KC-135 tanker aircraft with the 939th Air Refueling Wing to depart its home base at Portland, Ore., for the last time took wing July 14, marking the first step toward fulfillment of the unit’s BRAC 2005 obligation. The...

Lockheed Martin officials maintain that a problem with the F-22A airframe revealed last December bears no “safety of flight risk” or reduction in the aircraft’s service life, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Company officials also said that the Air Force is...

The Pacific Air Operations Center within the Kenney Warfighting Headquarters at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, has provided command and control for US Pacific Command’s Rim of the Pacific exercise, attended by airmen and sailors of seven Pacific Rim nations and the...

Maintainers with the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing recently discovered that strips of a synthetic coating inside the fuel tanks of the unit’s C-130s had peeled off, causing the unit’s leaders to ground the aircraft for more...

Behind the deadly striking forces of USAF fighters and bombers are the munitions airmen, such as the ones of the 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron at busy Bagram AB, Afghanistan. Air Force journalist Maj. David Kurle reports that the “ammo” airmen at Bagram receive ordnance from supply points, inspect it, store it, combine different components to build it for bombs and missiles, and then deliver it where it is needed. The Bagram operation is a mix of active, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve Command airmen.

The Air Force reports that an upcoming change to its instruction on wear of the uniform will include the wear of chevrons on the sleeves and circles around the US insignia for enlisted airmen. Air Force leaders eliminated the circle...

Approximately 150 airmen from the 492nd Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, England, deployed to Bulgaria July 11 to take part in the two-week training exercise dubbed Immediate Response that pairs US and Bulgarian forces, reports Stars and Stripes. Ten F-15E...

United States Forces Korea senior enlisted advisor Army Command Sgt. Maj. Barry Wheeler recently stopped by Kunsan AB, South Korea, to see how the airmen of the Wolf Pack and the US Army soldiers who support them with Patriot batteries...

The Air Force and Army’s top information officers spoke at a conference in Tyson’s Corner, Va., last week, saying their approaches to network modernization mirror each other. Army Lt. Gen. Steven Boutelle joined Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Peterson to...

The Defense Department plans to induct some 60,000 civilian personnel in the next round of switchovers to the new National Security Personnel System, starting in October. The latest effort, called Spiral 1.2, follows Spiral 1.1, comprising 11,000 employees, which, officials...

July 13, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 11 7 18 CAS/Armed Recon 44 29 73 Airlift 160 160 Air refueling 42 42 Total 55 36 202 293 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance