US Central Command said Thursday that an airman assigned to the 447th Air Expeditionary Group was killed and another airman was wounded when an improvised explosive device blew up during safing operations near Baghdad, Iraq, on March 29. The Pentagon has identified the airman who was killed as TSgt. Walter M. Moss Jr., 37, of Houston. Moss was deployed to Iraq from the 366th Civil Engineer Squadron, Mountain Home, Idaho.
The U.S. Air Force is working on a test program with Japan to establish a joint maintenance center that will perform repairs on aircraft operated by both nations—creating a “deterrent effect that will make adversaries think twice,” a top general said.