Four Years Straight:

For the fourth year in a row, the 43rd Electronic Combat Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., has deployed to Southwest Asia, where one of the EC-130H Compass Call crews flew the unit’s 2,276th combat sortie on March 18. The flight...

Can’t Stop Now:

The 1st Air Force/Air Forces Northern posted 59 more sorties in February than it did in January, as the Air National Guard-led Operation Noble Eagle continues to monitor the nation’s airspace, hunting for threats from aircraft and cruise missiles. NORAD/US...

Female Tanker Crew Flies SWA Combat:

The number of women aircrew members in the Air Force has risen greatly over the years, but it is still rare to have all-women crews. A trio of women managed to come together March 18 to fly a refueling mission...

V-22 Engine Sustainment in Question:

The Rolls-Royce T406 turbo shaft engines that power the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft are not lasting as long as initially forecasted by the contractor, Marine Corps Col. Matt Mulhern, the Osprey program director with Naval Air Systems Command, said March...

Quick Thinking:

The routine quickly changed to potentially devastating when SSgt. Jonathan Billie, an F-15E crew chief deployed to Bagram AB, Afghanistan, from Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., spotted flames in the engine compartment of a Strike Eagle. He had come to assist...

Travis C-17 Squadron on First Mass Deployment:

The new C-17 force at Travis AFB, Calif., embarked on its first collective deployment as a squadron late last month. The 21st Airlift Squadron, which received its first new C-17s in August 2006, deployed en masse to Southwest Asia to...

T-Bird Pilot Enters Women’s Aviation Hall of Fame:

The Air Force’s first female Thunderbird Aerial Demonstration Team pilot, Maj. Nicole Malachowski, has been inducted into the Women in Aviation International’s Pioneer Hall of Fame. Malachowski attended the association’s 19th annual conference last week in San Diego, where she...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest Asia

March 18, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 24 10 34 2,078 CAS/Armed Recon 67 39 106 6,310 Airlift 157 157 9,467 Air refueling 46 46 2,949 Total 343 20,804 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...