The Pentagon confirmed Dec. 3 that Maj. Troy L. Gilbert, the pilot whose F-16 crashed in Iraq on Nov. 27, died when the fighter crashed some 20 miles northwest of Baghdad. Officials had listed Gilbert, who was deployed to Balad...

The 355th Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., has received its first A-10 Warthog revamped under the Air Force’s A-10C precision engagement program. Among improvements that should extend the life of the A-10 fleet into the 2020s are new sensors that...

US Air Forces in Europe has reactivated 3rd Air Force, this time at Ramstein AB, Germany, not its old home at RAF Mildenhall, England. (We noted in early October that this resurrection was in the wind.) At the same time,...

The East Coast F-15 demonstration team stood down Dec. 1, making its last performance at Langley AFB, Va. Since Langley now is mostly an F-22 base, “it’s important for the public to see and appreciate what that airplane can do,”...

The investigation into the June 22 crash of a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle flying a training mission at Creech AFB, Nev., indicated that the UAV suffered rapid loss of engine oil because of a loose oil filter. A statement from...

An Air Force Reserve Command C-17 aircrew from McChord AFB, Wash., was flying some Hollywood entertainment industry folks from March ARB, Calif., to Lackland AFB, Tex., and were to take them back and head home. Instead they picked up a...

Following the Dec. 2 New York Times story on a Nov. 6 memo sent by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to President Bush that suggested it was time to change the Administration approach to the war in Iraq, National Security Advisor...

The Pentagon has announced the departure of DOD intelligence chief Stephen Cambone. (We reported last month that Cambone headed the rumor list of those Rumsfeld protégés expected to leave.) According to a statement, Cambone’s last official day will be Dec....

Out of the Riga Summit, NATO heads of state have developed a laundry list of “initiatives to increase the capacity of [member] forces to address contemporary threats and challenges.” Included in the Riga Summit Declaration are commitments to increase the...

Airmen deployed to the 732nd Regional Support Unit at Camp Habbaniyah, Iraq, have volunteered some 200 hours of their time—so far—to recover a cemetery dating to the 1940s when the camp was used by Britain’s Royal Air Force. Air Force...

Five Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command recovery teams and one investigation team have returned to their home base in Hawaii from trips to Laos and Cambodia, bringing back remains possibly of more Americans missing from the Vietnam War. The Laos trip...

Nov. 30, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 15 9 24 CAS/Armed Recon 33 48 81 Airlift 140 140 Air refueling 36 36 Total 48 57 176 281 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance