More than 190 members of the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Fighter Wing left Hancock Field ANGB in Syracuse yesterday (June 4) on the unit’s final F-16 deployment to the Middle East before transitioning to a new mission later this year. The four-month tour is the unit’s eighth to Southwest Asia since 1991 and its first since January 2007, Syracuse’s Post-Standard reported June 4. In all, about 500 wing personnel will rotate in and out of the combat theater on this deployment, the newspaper said. Upon returning, the wing will begin to convert this fall from flying F-16s to operating MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, wing spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Greta Lewis told the Daily Report June 4.
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…