Gen. Howie Chandler, commander of Pacific Air Forces, says the environmental impact assessment covering the use of Kona International Airport on the island of Hawaii for C-17 assault-landing training is now complete. PACAF is interested in gaining use of the airport to have a practice “short austere airfield” so that its C-17s can practice closer to home rather than having to fly to the US mainland, he said during a speech at the 2008 Hawaii Military Partnership Conference Jan. 3 in Honolulu. The Kona proposal would cost about $28 million, but free PACAF from the costs of sending the aircraft to CONUS and then have to deal with the constraints of range availability there, he said. PACAF operates two eight-ship squadrons of C-17s: one at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, and one at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. Chandler replaced now-retired Gen. Paul Hester who relinquished command of PACAF last November.
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.