The Governor of Kentucky, Ernie Fletcher, said Tuesday that the Kentucky Air National Guard would create a new unit—the 123rd Contingency Response Group—at Louisville where it will be “the light on in great times of need,” reports the Louisville Courier-Journal. Comprising some yet-to-be-identified 144 Air Guardsmen, the 123rd CRG will be the first all Air Guard “air base in a box” unit. The unit will work with the active duty 615th Contingency Response Wing at Travis AFB, Calif., providing the capability to set up bare base operations anywhere in the world.
In the small world of Air Force weather specialists, combat weather specialists are a niche unto themselves, deploying with Army ground units to provide forecasts and, if need be, fight alongside those Soldiers. For Staff Sgt. Francisco Estrada, the hardest part of the job isn’t the possibility of ground combat,…
