Multitask-capable flying crew chiefs are key to keeping the highly used C-130s flying in Southwest Asia. “We need to know everything, including engines, navigation, electrical, hydraulics, and fuels,” SrA. Christopher Sutton, an Air Force Reserve Command crew chief from Pennsylvania, told Air Force journalist Maj. Ann Knabe. Another AFRC maintainer, SMSgt. Edward Rife, said, “Fortunately, C-130s are extremely reliable,” but, he added, when they do break, the flying chiefs “come to the rescue.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…