The Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 137th Airlift Wing in Oklahoma City is trading its C-130 tactical transports for KC-135 aerial refuelers, courtesy of BRAC 2005. The Norman Transcript reports that the 137th will join forces with Air Force Reserve Command’s 507th Air Refueling Wing at Tinker AFB, Okla., to share operation and maintenance of 12 KC-135s—becoming the first Total Force Integration association of the two air reserve components. It will take about two years for the 137th AW to totally switch from the C-130 to the KC-135, but the unit already has eight airmen in training for the tanker mission at Altus AFB, Okla.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.