More than 130 members of the 15th Airlift Squadron, a C-17 unit, returned home to Charleston AFB, S.C., Jan. 3 after a four-month deployment to support US military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa. The Post and Courier, a Charleston newspaper, reported Jan. 4 that these airmen flew more than 3,000 sorties, dropped more than 103 million pounds of cargo, and carried 79,000 military personnel during their time in the war theater. “Putting cargo out there, bullets out there, supplies, food, water out there in mountainous terrains in Afghanistan, anything you can think of, we dropped it,” said Capt. Roosevelt Loveless, a C-17 pilot from the unit. Replacing the 15th AS in theater is Charleston’s 16th AS which headed out Dec. 29, along with members of the base’s 437th Operations Support Squadron. “We have trained for almost a year and are now ready to go out and do the mission,” said Maj. Todd McCoy, 437th Operations Group assistant director of operations. (Includes Charleston report by Amn. Ian Hoachlander)
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr. assumed leadership of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, succeeding Navy Adm. John Aquilino at a change of command ceremony, urging action amid China's “increasing intrusive and expansionist claims,” on May 3