President Obama on Monday commemorated the end of the US combat mission in Afghanistan in a speech at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. “In just two weeks, the transition that we’re making in Afghanistan will be complete. Afghans will take full responsibility for their security,” he said to the gathering of military and civilian personnel. He told them to be proud of what they accomplished in Afghanistan. “You helped decimate the core al Qaeda leadership and deliver justice to Osama bin Laden” and “Afghans are now looking to the future, and that’s because of you,” he said. However, Afghanistan remains a “very dangerous place,” and “there are still challenges to our security around the globe,” cautioned Obama. He said the US commitment to Afghanistan would endure. “We’ll continue to have a limited military presence there because we’ve got to keep training and equipping Afghan forces, and we’ve got to conduct counterterrorism missions because there are still remnants of al Qaeda,” he said. He also thanked the personnel for their role in combating the ISIS terror group and battling the spread of the Ebola virus in western Africa. (Obama transcript)
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.