Airmen with the 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron completed a successful month-long aerial asset “swap out” at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, on April 30. The airmen, along with loadmasters from Dover AFB, Del., and Travis AFB, Calif., loaded helicopters and associated equipment assigned to the 82nd and 101st Combat Aviation Brigades onto mobility aircraft for transfer back to the United States. Using C-5M Super Galaxies, airmen helped redeploy numerous helicopters as part of a “relief in place/transfer of authority” operation for the changing Army rotations, which saw airmen working with Army soldiers to pack up and load UH-60s, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, aeromedical evacuation equipment, command and control kit, and other elements of a CAB deployment. As the US has adjusted its force structure in Afghanistan over the past year, USAF mobility airmen have proved vital to ensuring both materiel and troops have moved on time both in theater and to redeploy back to the US.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.