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New York Air National Guard’s 105th Airlift Wing in Newburgh celebrated its transition to the C-17 airlifter during a ceremony at Stewart ANG Base. “The reason you have the C-17, 105th, is because you earned it. Congratulations,” said Gen. Duncan McNabb, head of US Transportation Command, during the Aug. 6 ceremony, reported the Poughkeepsie Journal. The wing has flown the C-5 Galaxy since 1985; it was the first Air Guard unit to operate the C-5. Boeing delivered the first of the wing’s eight C-17s on July 18; the second arrived 11 days later. “The men and women of the 105th now have a new capability to provide global reach even to the most austere locations around the world,” said Bob Ciesla, Boeing C-17 program manager, in a company release. The wing is slated to receive the remaining six C-17s by the end of September. (See also Mid-Hudson News report and New York National Guard advisory.)
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
