F-16 mechanics from Air National Guard units in California, Indiana, New York, and South Carolina are deployed to Misawa AB, Japan, to assist the active duty F-16 force, which has deployed many of its Viper maintainers to South Korea and had others on recuperative leave after a deployment to Iraq. The 31 Air Guardsmen, who arrived in late February and expect to remain through the end of March, have been working with the 35th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Misawa to recover and maintain F-16s that just returned from Iraq. The Air Guardsmen, most of whom maintain older Block 30 F-16s, received quick training on Misawa’s newer Block 50 fighters from one of the few active duty crew chiefs available, SSgt. William Thomas, with the squadron’s 14th Aircraft Maintenance Unit. It worked because 14th AMU lead production superintendent SMSgt. Michael Radford said, “We would not have been able to accomplish half the maintenance we completed without [the Air Guard’s] assistance.” (Misawa report by SSgt. Samuel Morse)
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.