The Air Force has created a special medal to “recognize the reality” that airmen are coming under enemy fire, particularly in nontraditional ways, says Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, USAF’s top personnel officer. The new award—the Air Force Combat Action Medal—will...

The Air Force plans to unveil its final request for proposals in the tanker replacement program this week, according to a statement issued late Friday. The service could still make its notional January deadline. Whether the RFP will alleviate Northrop...

The Air Force must cut 3,090 enlisted members by Sept. 30 to meet its 2007 force shaping goals based on last year’s higher than anticipated retention. To help reach the 3K cut, the service plans to roll back dates of...

The Air Mobility Warfare Center’s 421st Combat Training Squadron has trained its first 60 security forces airmen in its new Fly Away Security Training course. FAST prepares airmen who are about to deploy with mobility aircraft to Southwest Asia where...

The Ohio Air National Guard will establish a new 200-member RED HORSE engineering unit at Mansfield, the home of the 179th Airlift Wing, reports the Telegraph Forum. The 179th AW survived the BRAC 2005 axe—barely—losing its C-130s but later got...

New Defense Secretary Robert Gates held his first formal session with the Pentagon press corps Friday afternoon—forsaking the DOD briefing room favored by Donald Rumsfeld in favor of a conference room along the OSD leadership corridor. Apart from talk of...

When asked Friday afternoon (see above) why the Administration had nominated Navy Adm. William Fallon as the replacement (and first Navy commander) for US Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the choice was not hard at all considering Fallon...

A military working dog deployed from Tinker AFB, Okla., to Iraq was killed in action Jan. 19 during a patrol in Baghdad. Marco, a 7 year-old Belgian Malinois, was on weapons and explosives detection patrol with his handler, SSgt. Alissa...

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) has introduced a new bill to extend from two years to five years the time during which a veteran with no service-related disability can obtain VA health care. The chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee in...

Hawaii Democrat Daniel Akaka, head of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has sent a letter to both DOD chief Robert Gates and VA chief James Nicholson asking for “more detailed information” on a new record-sharing agreement DOD and VA announced Jan. 24. He referred to the “glacially slow progress” the two departments have made in creating an interoperable health record system. Akaka also noted that in testimony last week neither DOD nor VA senior officials gave satisfactory responses on the joint electronic health record issue, which he said was “supposed to have been a priority.”

Starting today, airmen can take advantage of a new course to train instructors in the use of night vision goggles now offered at Randolph AFB, Tex. The one and a half day course transferred last year from the auspices of...

The VA is dedicating $40 million over the next three years to set up a nationwide rehabilitation system for visually impaired veterans and active duty personnel, according to a Jan. 25 release. The funding will improve inpatient services, expand outpatient...

An accident investigation board has found that pilot error led to the crash Aug. 3, 2006, of a Predator MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicle during a training sortie out of Creech AFB, Nev. The civilian contractor piloting the UAV “inadvertently depressed...

Jan. 24, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 4 17 CAS/Armed Recon 42 27 69 Airlift 135 135 Air refueling 28 28 Total 55 31 163 249 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance