The Air Force has launched a new construction project that will bring a 74,000 sq. ft. training complex by the fall of 2010 to the Inter-American Air Forces Academy at Lackland AFB, Tex. The San Antonio Business Journal reported yesterday that the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment and the Army Corps of Engineers have awarded an $18.5 million contract to AMEC Earth & Environment of Plymouth Meeting, Pa. The complex will house classrooms, aircraft operations, and hangar maintenance training areas as well as administrative space, according to the newspaper. This type of training for the IAAFA, which educates airmen from partner nations in Latin America, currently goes on at Port San Antonio, the former Kelly Air Force Base. But it is being relocated to Lackland courtesy of BRAC 2005.
Maj. Gen. Jason T. Hinds has been nominated for a third star and to take over as deputy commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, the Pentagon announced May 8. If confirmed, Hinds would serve as the No. 2 behind Gen. James B. Hecker.