One of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, retired Brig. Gen. Charles McGee, who flew 409 combat missions in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, died Jan. 16. He was 102.
Oklahoma Air National Guard Lt. Col. Michael Coloney received the Distinguished Flying Cross—the nation’s fourth-highest award for valor in combat—for his actions during a Taliban attack in Afghanistan in 2018.
The crew of an AC-130J on June 22 received Distinguished Flying Crosses and Air Medals for protecting helicopters evacuating wounded American and Afghan forces during a September 2019 fight in Afghanistan. The Ghostrider, callsign Shadow 71, provided about two hours of constant close air support ...
A C-130J pilot received the Distinguished Flying Cross while a pilot and two loadmasters received Air Medals on May 10 for their actions last September, when their aircraft took enemy fire, injuring one on board and damaging the aircraft’s controls. The team returned to base, ...
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Collins, who was the command module pilot on the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, as well as a test pilot, author, and the first director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, died April 28 at age 90. ...
Howard C. “Scrappy” Johnson, a Collier Trophy winner and founder of the Red River Valley Pilots Association—also known as the “River Rats”—died Dec. 9, 2020, at age 100. Johnson flew hundreds of combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. He also served in World War II.
Two special operations CV-22 Osprey pilots and a special missions aviator on Nov. 3 received valor awards for evacuating forces before and after the Jan. 7 Iranian ballistic missile attack on al-Asad Air Base, Iraq. The attack, which came in response to the U.S. killing ...
An A-10 pilot with the Michigan Air National Guard received the Distinguished Flying Cross on Nov. 5 for dramatically guiding his Warthog to a belly landing in 2017 after a catastrophic gun malfunction blew the aircraft’s canopy off and prevented the landing gear from functioning ...
California Air National MQ-9s have flown the length of the entire state, helping to coordinate responses to more than 24 fires that have been burning in the past two months. As of Sept. 28, there have been 7,982 total wildfires, burning more than 3.6 million ...
An AC-130U Spooky crew provided more than nine hours of air support to special operations forces, enabling the rescue of 15 patients during a mass casualty evacuation in an April 2019 mission in Afghanistan. In a March 2 ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Fla., the aircrew ...
Two US Air Force legends will be promoted, one posthumously, under the draft fiscal 2020 defense policy bill. The bill includes language honorarily promoting retired Lt. Col. Dick Cole, the last living Doolittle Raider who died earlier this year, to colonel. It also honorarily promotes ...
Two A-10 pilots with the 303rd Fighter Squadron earlier this month received Distinguished Flying Crosses for their actions in 2008 and 2010 battles in Afghanistan, in which the pilots were credited with saving US forces and eliminating dozens of Taliban fighters. The pilots, Maj. John ...