The Air Force has awarded the Bronze Star medal to Capt. Karen Rupp for her actions while deployed to Iraq as commander of the 424th Medium Truck Detachment. Rupp had deployed from Dover AFB, Del., but is now aerial port officer for the 732nd Air Mobility Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. At the ceremony, Rupp said, “This deployment is the highlight of my career,” noting that her unit was “as close to the fight as you can get and dealt with life and death situations on a daily basis.” During her seven month tour, her unit moved 190,000 tons of cargo on the ground, compared to an annual 100,000 tons move by air at Dover. She credited the unit’s “repetitive training” as a major factor in “bringing everyone home safely.” (Elmendorf report by SrA. Laura Turner)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth foot-stomped the Pentagon's push for acquisition speed and contractor accountability in a Jan. 12 speech at Lockheed Martin’s production hub in Fort Worth, Texas—the heart of the department’s biggest acquisition program, the F-35.
