Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger was surprised with a nomination to be inducted into the command’s Order of the Sword during a recent senior leader conference. “You lead with passion. You care about every one of your airmen. You have made their quality of life, their training and development, and their resources in a tough environment a priority,” said CMSgt. Michael Warner, command chief and senior enlisted officer at AFMC, before a crowd of hundreds at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. “This has got to be the highest honor I could ever have bestowed on me, of anything that I could think of in my entire three-plus decades in the United States Air Force. It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Wolfenbarger, who is the first female from AFMC to be nominated. She will be formally inducted on Feb. 5, 2015, according to a command release.
B-52 Stratofortress bombers marked a new first in Operation Epic Fury when some of the BUFFs flew over Iran carrying JDAM-guided gravity bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. The development signals a weakening of Iranian air defenses and a new use for the venerable bomber in the nearly…