The 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., successfully launched a Boeing Delta IV Medium rocket, boosting a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite into orbit early Friday morning. Liftoff took place at 5:53 a.m. PST, with the DMSP-17 spacecraft deployed...

Air Force Research Lab’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M., has produced the tactical satellite-2 within 24 months, a feat that previously would have taken 10 years or so, according to a directorate release. TacSat-2 is the progenitor for...

Air Force and Army researchers and engineers linked arms recently to improve the interface between USAF tactical air control party airmen and the Army ground troops they support by testing a wireless network cursor on target computer architecture and a...

Veterans Affairs has been sending letters to veterans in the New York area alerting them to the Sept. 6 theft of yet another VA laptop, according to a Nov. 1 statement by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). Maloney says the VA...

The Iraqi Government High Tribunal on Nov. 5 found Saddam Hussein guilty of ordering the execution of 148 men in Dujail, Iraq, in 1982, and sentenced him to death, according to a DOD news release. The former Iraqi dictator’s lawyers...

Air Force medical and mobility forces recently took extraordinary measures to help save the eyesight of a wounded 21-year-old marine. Among various wounds, including burns over 15 percent of his body, the shrapnel in the marine’s right eye prompted doctors at Balad AB, Iraq, to say he needed to go directly to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. The Combined Air Operations Center Aeromedical Evacuation Control Team alerted an on-call aeromedical team at Balad for an “alpha mission” and an on-call C-17 airlifter crew deployed outside Iraq. Normally, airlifters on special medevac missions fly from Iraq to a medical facility in Germany. Air staging facility airmen at Balad loaded the marine, accompanied by a critical care air transport team. The Air Force team delivered him 15 hours later to Brooke. Maj. Charles Puls, leader of the CCATT, said medical reports indicate the marine now is able to see out of both eyes. Puls called the flight a “landmark,” saying, “As far as I know, it was the fastest trip on record.”

US Air Force officials are working with counterparts in Singapore, who want to bring up to 10 F-15s of the Singapore Air Force to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to establish a training squadron. Any such addition to a US base...

The war against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan is a “mosaic war,” said Conrad Crane, director of US Army military history at the Army War College. Speaking at a Cato Institute policy forum in Washington on Thursday, Crane said the...

More than 300 airmen from seven USAF bases joined forces last week at Avon Park Air Range and MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to participate in the first ever Air Combat Command rescue exercise, utilizing ACC’s full spectrum of...

Service members preparing to leave the military and enter civilian life can smooth the transition by attending free workshops offered by the Labor Department in collaboration with DOD and Veterans Affairs. The workshops address job search skills, veteran’s benefits, disabled...

Around the Air Force, paper copies of base newspapers are going the way of the dinosaur. More and more bases are scrapping their ink and newsprint publications for online versions. Last month, Vandenberg AFB, Calif., dropped its 50-year-old paper, the...

Nov. 2, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 14 9 23 CAS/Armed Recon 33 26 59 Airlift 140 140 Air refueling 31 31 Total 47 35 171 253 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance