US Air Forces in Europe sent a four-person traveling contact team from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano AB, Italy, to Romania late last month to explain how the US Air Force trains and equips its enlisted airmen to conduct aircraft maintenance and progressively to take on more responsibility in the field—and, in turn, learned about the Romanian approach. SMSgt. Timothy Kellner, a quality assurance superintendent with the 31st FW, said, “I was impressed with the training of their warrant officers,” who he said undergo a two-year course that gives them “a very good understanding of the theory of operations of the specific system they were training on.” (Aviano report by TSgt. Michael O’Connor)
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…