Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne on Friday spent some time at the New York Air National Guard’s Hancock Field, near Syracuse. Rep. James Walsh (R-N.Y.) arranged the visit “to ensure the highest-ranking officials within the Air Force recognize the full value this base brings to our nation’s air defense system.” Hancock was not one of the facilities that USAF targeted for closure during BRAC 2005, but the 174th Fighter Wing, which calls Hancock home, is slated to lose its F-16s. And, before the BRAC cuts came out, Walsh already had gotten USAF to say it would place a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle unit at the facility.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.