The last MC-130E Combat Talon I to enter programmed depot maintenance before the MC-130 fleet is retired has nearly finished its final refit, according to officials at Robins AFB, Ga., home of the depot. Tail No. 62-1843—the oldest Combat Talon I still in service—was in “pretty bad shape upon arrival,” noted Kevin Johnson, 560th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron MC-130 line supervisor. “There is generally a good bit of work for everyone involved—structural and avionics-wise,” added George Hoffman, 560th AMXS PDM flight chief. Consistently deployed, often supporting clandestine operations in austere conditions, the Combat Talons “have a lot of cracks and corrosion,” said Hoffman. Robins took PDM responsibility for Air Force Special Operations Command’s fleet of 14 MC-130Es from the Big Safari program office in the 1990s. The first MC-130E arrived at Robins for PDM in 1998, according to base officials. Aircraft 1843 is expected to leave the depot in early April, they said. New MC-130Js are replacing the MC-130Es. (Robins report by Jenny Gordon)
Active-Duty Airmen only have a few days left to submit an official waist-to-height ratio into the Air Force’s new online application. But the service clarified July 23 that this first body composition measurement is not meant to be scored as part of the new Physical Fitness Readiness Assessment, or PFRA