Lt. Gen. Darren McDew assumed command of 18th Air Force during a ceremony at Scott AFB, Ill. McDew, who previously oversaw the Air Force District of Washington at JB Andrews, Md., pinned on his third star immediately before becoming 18th AF boss on Aug. 6. McDew replaced Lt. Gen. Mark Ramsay at the helm of Air Mobility Command’s sole warfighting numbered air force, which is also the Air Force’s largest NAF overall. “Nothing happens until something moves and that’s what the team that’s assembled here does,” said Ramsay, who led 18th AF since September 2011, at the change-of-command ceremony, according to Scott’s Aug. 7 release. He is moving on to direct force structure, resources, and assessment issues on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. During Ramsay’s tenure with 18th AF, mobility airmen “executed more than 249,000 airlift sorties, offloaded more than two billion pounds of fuel, and transported more than 1.5 million passengers, 500,000 tons of cargo, and 10,500 patients through aeromedical evacuation,” states the release. (Scott report by Maj. Michael Meridth)
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
