The Air Force has awarded the Airman’s Medal, its highest award for non-combat heroism, to 2nd Lt. Shannon Bancroft for her actions during a four-car accident on a Florida highway. Bancroft, who is section commander of the 325th Maintenance Operations...

Some 130 Air National Guardsmen from Virginia Beach are being called to active duty for 10 months to deploy to various bases in Southwest Asia. Various news reports said the Virginia ANG’s 203rd RED HORSE engineering unit would undergo refresher...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took control of Iraq’s air, naval, and army forces during an official transfer of power ceremony on Sept. 7. The change is a significant step for the Iraqi government that still relies heavily on coalition...

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the Armed Services panel and chairman of the Tactical AirLand Force Subcommittee wants military commanders to decide when troops come home instead of the Commander in Chief—President Bush—or the Secretary of Defense—Donald Rumsfeld....

The TRAPCON, for transportable radar approach control, airmen at Balad AB, Iraq, who control the airspace in central Iraq average less than four years in service. And, the environment is much more dynamic than the formula, FAA-controlled US airspace. “These airmen amaze me every day,” SSgt. Brandi Cannedy told the Red Tail Flyer. She went on to say that there is a “steep learning curve,” and the airmen have much more responsibility than when she started out in the career field.

Retired Gen. John Jumper, former Air Force Chief of Staff, writes that a recent Washington Times article “impugning airpower’s ability to contribute decisively in conflicts … misses the mark.” Jumper, who provided us a copy of his letter (a version of which ran in the Sept. 6 Times), points out the irrelevance of the assertion by Fred Reed (and others) that airpower advocates overpromise what they can deliver. Reed used, as a recent example, the fact that Israeli airpower did not unilaterally defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon. Jumper notes that the idea that any one service can be “decisive on its own” is passé. He also writes that what bothers him greatly are pundits who continue to offer up “divisive interservice putdowns.”

Iran claims to have built a 2,000-pound guided bomb “within the framework of enhancing our defense capabilities and in accordance with our deterrent principles,” according to Agence France-Presse news service. AFP picked up the quote by Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa...

An investigation board has decided that the death of SrA. Abby J. Bilbrey on May 4 when the vehicle in which she riding on the way to a remote transmitter site in the White Tank Mountains in Arizona rolled off...

The Senate voted Thursday to increase funds for research and treatment of traumatic brain injuries, which has become a much more prevalent injury in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq than it was in previous wars. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) and...

The US Air Force Academy on Thursday honored the memory of Maj. Burke Morgan, a 1961 graduate who had been declared killed in action during the Vietnam War but whose remains were not discovered for some 38 years, when it...

The bad news: There are competing plans on Capitol Hill for remedying rising Pentagon prescription drug costs. The good news: At least lawmakers came up with a plan. The Pentagon offered none. The Congressional newspaper The Hill reports that the...

The KC-135 tanker is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, but so is a retired chief master sergeant, who spent his entire Air Force career working on the KC-135 and continued right on in civilian life. Retired CMSgt. Bobby McCasland...

Sept. 6, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 7 20 CAS/Armed Recon 39 39 78 Airlift 150 150 Air refueling 41 41 Total 52 46 191 289 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance