Gen. John P. Jumper, USAF’s Chief of Staff, claimed Monday that the service got “most” of its recommendations approved by the BRAC commission. In his view, if the service gets 50 percent, “it’s usually pretty good.” Jumper said that the...

ANG took some hits. The key dispute centered on ANG's fighter units—A-10s, F-15s, F-16s. We present a preliminary box score (click box at left) of who won and who lost. Best we can tell, ANG started with 39 fighter sites. (Add Hickam AFB, Hawaii, a non-fighter base which will get ANG fighters, to make it 40.) The BRAC commission agreed with DOD that 12 of these bases should be stripped of fighters. The remaining 27 kept some fighters, and, in 12 cases, DOD and the panel were in total agreement about what kind and how many. In the case of 15 bases, however, there were disputes. Some bases got lucky and BRAC added fighters. Others got fewer than the Pentagon had prescribed. Still others got different kinds of fighters than the Pentagon wanted to give them. For all the of tugging and hauling, however, BRAC kept open only four fighter bases that DOD had marked for extinction—Ft. Smith, Ark.; Duluth, Minn.; Great Falls, Mont.; and Portland, Ore. For the entire Air National Guard, there was a net gain of only 12 fighters.

Key ANG Reorganization Foe Also “Happy” at Outcome: Did the Air National Guard come out reasonably well in the base-closing demolition derby that unfolded late last week? (DR, 8/29/05) Possibly. A straw in the wind: Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, the...

Lempke also praised Gen. T. Michael Moseley, who is the incoming USAF Chief of Staff. The Air Force leader has called a meeting in September for all USAF generals, inviting not only blue-suit Guard generals but even Army Guard adjutants...

Speaking about the long-delayed Mobility Capabilities Study, now circulating in draft form, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper believes it will “shift the focus” to a mix of large and smaller tankers. He also expects the inherent cargo-carrying...

Will the Air Force see 222 C-17s? That’s the number the service has often stated as being the minimum required to fulfill airlift requirements. The currently funded number is 180 C-17s. But Jumper said, “anything beyond 180 is part of...

Who Said “Sharp Reductions” No one has said US forces in Iraq will “draw down sharply next year,” USAF Gen. Richard Myers, JCS Chairman, told the Pentagon press corps on Friday, bluntly rejecting the notion that any “senior commander” had...

It won’t be Pope Air Force Base, N.C., anymore, but even the new Pope Army base (Ft. Pope?) will have an Air Force presence. Despite earlier reservations about destroying synergy between USAF airlifters at Pope AFB, N.C., and the troops...

Among the many BRAC decisions rendered by the commission last week are: realignment of the undergraduate navigator training at Randolph AFB, Tex., to NAS Pensacola, Fla.; closure of Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, Tex., with the creation of...

The F/A-22 Raptor started follow-on operational testing and evaluation Monday at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Among the tests being conducted by the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center are the capability of the Raptor to perform in the air-to-ground role...

An Air Force accident investigation found that the crash of a HH-60 Pave Hawk on May 11 near Angel Fire, N.M., that resulted in the death of flight engineer TSgt. Scott A. Bobbitt, was caused primarily by pilot error. Contributing...

The Air Force released its new service-wide guidelines on religious tolerance Monday, after a task force concluded in a June report that a perception of bias exists on the campus of the U.S. Air Force Academy. The new guidelines, developed...

A USAF F-15E released four Small Diameter Bombs from two separate carriages on Aug. 25 during a test at Eglin, AFB, Fla., where full capability testing of the SDB system is under way. According to a Boeing statement the test...

Brig. Gen. Stephen L. Hoog, leader of the Air Force’s Air and Space Expeditionary Force Center, claims there is no better place to see the AEF in action than in Southwest and Central Asia. He recently paid a visit to...

The overall winner of USAFE’s Sure Fire 2005 weapons loading competition, held last week, was the 81st Aircraft Maintenance Unit, Spangdahlem AB, Germany. The other top finishers were: SrA. Joshua Shively, 23rd AMU, Spangdahlem, for the bomblift competition; the 31st...

Some 70 RAF airmen and British Army loadmasters flew a pair of RAF C-130s across the Atlantic recently to work with their American counterparts during a training exercise at Little Rock AFB, Ark. Although the exercise featured learning hazardous duties,...

The MQ-1 Predator that crashed in Southwest Asia on March 27 was brought down by an engine fire, so determined an Air Combat Command crash investigation team. ACC released the investigation results Friday. There apparently was a fuel leak in...

An unmanned drone aircraft crashed into the mountains of central Iran on Sunday, according to a Reuters news service report out of Tehran. The aircraft’s origin has not been determined yet by Iranian officials, but we bet they have some...

Was there any doubt after the Uzbeks demanded recently that the US pull American forces out of Uzbekistan within six months? Just to be certain, the Uzbekistan parliament voted Friday to demand the withdrawal of US troops from K-2 Air...

Make Yourself Joint—It’s Legal: The Air Force has decided that majors and above—and some captains—can self-nominate themselves for credit for joint duty based on an expanded list of approved operations. Why bother? You can combine your credits with those earned...

With Hurricane Katrina making landfall on the Gulf Coast, the Air Force issued stop movement orders Monday for personnel moving to or transiting on temporary duty to Keesler AFB, Miss., and Tyndall AFB, Fla.

On Aug. 27, USAF F-16s flew a pre-planned air strike in the vicinity of Baquaba, Iraq, expending two GBU-38s against an improvised explosive device staging site used by anti-Iraqi forces.

August 26-28, 2005 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 30 15 – 45 CAS/Armed Recon 137 37 – 174 Airlift – – 445 445 Air refueling – – 108 108 Total 167 52 553 772 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...