SMSgt. Mark Farmer, the operations superintendent with the 114th Space Control Squadron at Patrick AFB, Fla., is one of the Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2016. As the noncommissioned officer in charge of a command and control space cell deployed to Al Udeid AB, Qatar, Farmer led his team in three intelligence collection missions, identifying two high-value individuals and guaranteeing battlespace awareness. He led three crews through more than 30 rehearsal of concept drills that exercised space effects and elevated the crews’ ability to carry out combatant command missions. He modified four mission-critical documents and created a C2 real-time tracker to organize events during multiple missions. This increased situational awareness during periods of high operational tempo. He guided the transition from classroom-based training to high-fidelity performance-based scenarios that developed ready warriors. Air Force Magazine is shining the spotlight on each OAY in the days leading up to AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, which starts Sept. 19 in National Harbor, Md.
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…