Airmen and C-130s from both the Illinois and Montana Air National Guard recently returned from a record-setting deployment to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. The airmen, while assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, and their C-130Hs broke records for the most passengers moved in recorded history from the undisclosed base and the most hours flown since October 2012, according to Air Forces Central Command. The airmen and aircraft set their unit’s best mission completion rate since 2015, while flying into remote and rough airfields such as the rebuilt Qayyarah West field near Mosul.
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.