There is “no lack of morale, trust me” among rank-and-file airmen, especially those deployed to Afghanistan, chief of staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz reported Friday. At a Brookings Institute program in Washington,. Schwartz said the deployed airmen are “fully invested” in their mission in Afghanistan, where Schwartz recently visited, and as long as they are properly trained and their families are taken care of in their absence, morale won’t be an issue. “Are we catering to families? Yes, we are,” Schwartz acknowledged, but the attention on family support grew out of listening to what motivates most airmen. “If we don’t listen, we’ll have a hard time keeping them,” he explained. He also advised straight talk. Today’s airmen will accept any mission “if we don’t bullshit them,” Schwartz said. “I think they sniff that stuff out better than their grandparents did.”
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…