Troops flying into Southwest Asia are met with calls for volunteers to assist the scarce aerial porters of the 8th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron in unloading baggage. The 8th EAMS calls it a simple necessity to handle the flow of some 35,000 troops in and out of SWA each month. The squadron only needs 30 volunteers to offload the baggage, placing it on waiting trucks. However, the other military passengers don’t get away clean; they have to help take the bags off the trucks. Said SSgt. Vickie Sennet, a personnel specialist on her third SWA deployment, “Having done this before, I pretty much knew what to expect.”
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.