The Air Force Recruiting Service is sponsoring the No. 43 car for a new NASCAR Sprint Cup team that Gillett Evernham Motorsports and famed driver Richard Petty of Petty Holdings are forming for the 2009 racing season. The Air Force will use the car as a recruiting tool, hoping to capitalize on the racing sport’s strong, patriotic fan base and the allure of the sport’s speed, teamwork, and technology to inspire young Americans to consider the Air Force as a career choice. Reed Sorenson, a 22-year-old, three-time winner in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, will drive the No. 43 car, which will feature an Air Force paint scheme in four of 38 races this season. Last fall, the Air Force sponsored a dragster driven by Kenny Bernstein at four National Hot Rod Association events on a test basis to gauge its recruiting power. (AFRS report by Daniel Elkins)
Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing helped save 11 airplane crash survivors off the coast of Florida on May 12. The Reserve Airmen were flying an HC-130J Combat King II and an HH-60W Jolly Green II on a routine training flight when a Coast Guard call diverted…