Senior officials of the active duty 60th Air Mobility Wing and AFRC 394th AMW at Travis AFB, Calif., recently experienced a unique thrill—they drove in the final rivets on a new C-17 airlifter destined for Travis. Brig. Gen. Thomas Gizler Jr., head of the 394th AMW, and Col. Timothy Zadalis, vice commander of 60th AMW, traveled to the Boeing plant in Long Beach, Calif., to accomplish the “major join” and announce that the first Travis C-17 would be called the “Spirit of Solano” to honor the communities surrounding Travis.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…