Retired Maj. Gen. Sidney S. Novaresi, who began his career as a National Guard private in 1939 and ended as commander of 4th Air Force when it was at McClellan AFB, Calif., died July 22 in Citrus Heights, Calif., after a long illness. He was 85. Novaresi reached master sergeant during World War II before he entered the aviation cadet program, graduating in 1943 and flying P-47s in the Pacific. He flew F-84s during the Korean War and C-124s during the Vietnam War. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1982. (Read more in the Sacramento Bee.)
A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber flew from Europe across the Middle East to the Persian Gulf on July 25 in a 32-hour flight, as conflicts continued to roil the area with U.S. troops coming under attack in Iraq and Syria on July 25 and July 26, U.S. officials told…