The Air National Guard-led 1st Air Force at Tyndall AFB, Fla., organized much of the hunt for famed aviator and tycoon Steve Fossett, engaging various aircraft and a USAF radar unit through the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall, reports Capt. Nathan Broshear. The California, Nevada, and Utah Civil Air Patrol flew light aircraft and the California and Nevada Air National Guards C-130 and HH-60 Pave Hawk aircraft. On Sept. 5, CAP added an Airborne Real-Time Cueing Hyperspectral Enhanced Reconnaissance-equipped aircraft to the mix, to aid in identifying objects in the mountainous terrain where Fossett was believed to have gone down.
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…