Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz has assigned Maj. Gen. Lawrence Wells to take command of 9th Air Force at Shaw AFB, S.C. He succeeds Maj. Gen. Stephen Hoog, who’s been in charge of 9th AF since last August. Wells comes to Shaw from Yongsan Army Garrison, South Korea, where he’s been deputy chief of staff for United Nations Command and US Forces Korea since July 2009. He is a command pilot with more than 2,500 flight hours in aircraft such as the F-16, KC-10, and U-2. (DOD release)
The Pentagon is significantly bolstering airpower near Venezuela, dispatching the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to Latin America, it said in an Oct. 24 statement. The announcement came just hours after U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers and other U.S. assets flew near the Venezuelan coast on Oct. 23.
