Officials in Richland County, Ohio, secured a Labor Department grant for nearly $145,000 to help search for a new mission for Air National Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing at Lahm Airport in Mansfield, reports the Mansfield (OH) News Journal. The 2005 BRAC spared the wing but took its C-130s, so it must find a new mission. Local officials plan to use the money to compile information on skills and training levels of employees to market them for a new military mission and to research how to attract private sector development. An Ohio ANG spokesman tells the paper that a new mission could be assigned to the 179th within weeks. We should never underestimate the power of positive thinking.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.