The Airborne Laser program is all about achieving so-called “knowledge points,” so Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency, explained to lawmakers at a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing. Obering and his predecessor—now...

The first of three Pacific Air Forces-directed Red Flag exercises in 2007 gets underway Thursday at Eielson and Elmendorf Air Force Bases in Alaska. Just a year ago, PACAF hosted the first Red Flag-Alaska, which incorporated the former Cope Thunder...

The Air Force’s current top enlisted airman, CMSAF Rodney McKinley, chose to focus his latest “The Enlisted Perspective” on the service’s very first Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, CMSAF Paul Airey. McKinley writes, “Forty years later Chief Airey continues to serve the airmen he led so well.” He quotes Airey: “I have seen many changes as we progressed from simple airpower to today’s aerospace force. The enlisted corps has kept pace with that progress, for it is pride and dedication that keep enlisted men at their posts.” McKinley goes on: “The first CMSAF has always been a leader,” from his days as a World War II B-24 radio operator to his advocacy of such things as the service’s Senior NCO Academy and the Weighted Airmen Promotion System, still in use today, to working after his retirement on various boards, where he “continued his fight for the rights of our airmen.”

The Air Force personnel and manpower chief, Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, assured lawmakers last week that USAF has a program in place to assist seriously wounded airmen returning from the war on terror. The Palace HART—helping airmen recover together—program begins...

Developers hoping to build some 5,000 homes northeast of Beale AFB, Calif., have run into a wall supported by the Air Force, regional planners, and environmentalists, reports the Sacramento Bee (requires free registration). The plan for the Yuba Highlands has...

St. Clair County officials in Illinois believe that operation of a rifle and pistol shooting range near Scott Air Force Base poses a danger to the aircraft that operate out of the base and, consequently, to people on the ground...

Airmen from Air Force Special Operations Command’s 17th Special Operations Squadron who returned recently from a Southwest Asia rotation took time to visit six classes of first, second, and third graders on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The airmen, who...

The Air Force has named US Air Forces in Europe’s 39th Security Forces Squadron at Incirlik AB, Turkey, the best Large Security Forces Squadron for 2006. It is quite an honor for a unit that has “more younger members than...

Winning the 2007 Commander in Chief’s Annual Award for Installation Excellence within the Air Force is Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. The home of the 366th Fighter Wing Gunfighters is one of five DOD installations to receive the award, which evaluates...

Among military units deployed from France to support coalition operations in Afghanistan is the Flight Refueling Group 93 “Bretagne,” which has rotated its airmen to Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, since 2002, reports USAF journalist MSgt. Daniel Nathaniel. Their job for Afghanistan...

The Air Force began tearing down old housing at Spangdahlem AB, Germany, last fall and expects to start construction on 79 of 139 new units next month. Service plans for the $83 million effort call for all 139 new homes...

March 30, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 20 6 26 CAS/Armed Recon 62 33 95 Airlift 145 145 Air refueling 44 44 Total 82 39 189 310 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance