Lt. Col. Jeff Roetzel with the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron recently passed a milestone in the B-1B, becoming the first pilot to go over 4,000 flying hours in the Lancer, better known among the airmen who fly and maintain it as the “Bone.” Roetzel reached the 4,000-hour mark during an Operation Enduring Freedom combat mission. He acknowledged in an Air Force news release that the first Bone crewman to reach the milestone was a weapons systems officer. Roetzel credits his reaching 4,000 hours with the time he spent flying the B-1B while he served in the Kansas Air National Guard, after leaving active duty in 1996. In 2003, he came back on active duty to continue flying the B-1; he expects to retire from active duty this fall.
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.