The airmen working with the high-flying Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle at Beale AFB, Calif., last week carried out their first operational mission from Beale. The 9th Reconnaissance Wing airmen deployed the UAV to Andersen AFB, Guam, for the first time, reports 2nd Lt. Ashley Peltier. Previously, the Beale airmen had worked with test personnel at Edwards AFB, Calif., flying the RQ-4 from Edwards. “We have stabilized our training operations at Beale and are now stepping out to show that we can safely self-deploy the Global Hawk around the world,” says Lt. Col. J. Scott Winstead, commander of the 9th RW’s 12th Reconnaissance Squadron. He noted that the “primary challenge” from the ops side was “software and weather,” because the pilots had to train with new software and a typhoon delayed the deployment by a week.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.