Two F-15E crew chiefs with the 379th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron in Southwest Asia recently received Flightline Safety Awards for their quick action in saving other airmen and a multimillion dollar F-15E Strike Eagle. The Desert Eagle reports that SSgt. Victor Babuta and SrA. James Clark, both from Seymour-Johnson AFB, N.C., were faced with a potentially explosive situation when they began to check out a problem reported by the aircrew of an F-15E just returned from a sortie. The crew chiefs saw smoke and smelled fumes, but before they could get the engine shut down, there was a loud pop and saw a flash fire. They immediately shut down the engine, and one ducked under the aircraft to reach and put out the fire, which was dangerously close to a live bomb.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.