The C-27J Spartan flies first combat mission on deployment to Afghanistan. Several C-27Js from the Ohio Air National Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing at Mansfield are being operated by ANG and Army aircrews to support ground operations.
In the small world of Air Force weather specialists, combat weather specialists are a niche unto themselves, deploying with Army ground units to provide forecasts and, if need be, fight alongside those Soldiers. For Staff Sgt. Francisco Estrada, the hardest part of the job isn’t the possibility of ground combat,…
