No Range, No Air Bases: If Asian news media accounts are true, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told South Korean defense officials during a meeting last fall that unless Seoul could provide suitable air training ranges, the US would remove its air bases from the peninsula. US Air Force pilots stationed in South Korea have expressed dissatisfaction with the situation, and the commander of US Forces Korea told Congress earlier this year that US air elements do not have adequate ranges to ensure day-to-day competence in air-to-ground operations.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.