Last week the Air Force activated the 911th Air Refueling Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., where the new unit’s active duty airmen will share operation and maintenance of KC-135 aircraft “owned” by Air Force Reserve Command’s 916th Air Refueling Wing. The 911th ARS is the first active associate tanker unit in the service’s Total Force Integration plan. Last summer, the service shut down the 911th ARS at its former home at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., which has to give up its KC-135s under BRAC 2005.
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.