The coalition airlift community at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, banded together recently when the “gateway” base had an “unusually large influx of troops,” reports Air Force journalist SSgt. Lara Gale. A Spanish Air Force detachment that normally transports Spanish personnel supporting the NATO mission in Afghanistan offered to ferry a group of USAF officers from Manas to Kabul, Afghanistan. To the USAF airmen, of course, it was just another C-130 ride.
The United States Air Force is flying less than historic norms and funding for acquisition and readiness is on a path to further hollow out this too small and old force to that is incapable of sustaining an enduring combat air campaign.
