When The Alaska Zoo decided it would be best to send its only elephant, a 25-year-old African elephant named Maggie, to live in California with the Performing Animals Welfare Society sanctuary, it turned to the Air Force after it couldn’t find suitable commercial transportation. The 10,000-pound Maggie traveled in a specially designed crate aboard a 517th Airlift Squadron C-17 from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, to Travis AFB, Calif. From Travis, she was taken by truck to the sanctuary where she will share 30 acres with nine other elephants, reports Associated Press. The Air Force is getting reimbursed for the expense of the endeavor.
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.