Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame received a collective Congressional Gold Medal “in recognition of their unique military record, which inspired revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces,” reads the public law (109-213) authorizing the award. The legendary airmen became the first black US military pilots, training at a separate facility near Tuskegee, Ala., hence the name. Of the 992 graduates, some 450 served in combat during World War II, establishing an exemplary standard in fighters and bombers. Their ranks included Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who would retire as a three-star general and receive a fourth star years later, and Daniel “Chappie” James, who would become the first black four-star general. (Read Benjamin Davis, American and Tuskegee Airmen from the archives of Air Force Magazine.)

The head of the Air Intelligence Agency, Brig. Gen. Jan-Marc Jouas, has taken exception to comments attributed to Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt criticizing the Air Force effort to become executive agent for unmanned aerial vehicles—at least the relatively large...

To abide by the Congressional mandate to retain 44 combat-coded B-52 bombers, Air Combat Command is “finalizing a plan” to recode 11 training and one test BUFFs to add to its current force of 32 combat-coded B-52s contained in the...

The Defense Department directed US Strategic Command and the Air Force to conduct a study of the nuclear cruise missile force structure and “build a retirement schedule for the missiles,” according to written testimony presented by Maj. Gen. Roger Burg...

Air Force Space Command is revamping its missile alert operations, and missileers will begin serving 72-hour alerts beginning next month. The missileers will serve in three-person teams, with one officer remaining topside in the missile alert facility and two manning...

The change to the 72-hour schedule actually will provide young missile officers the early leadership opportunities currently lacking in the field, according to the head of operations for 20th Air Force, Col. Michael Vaughn. (See above.) Today, the two-person teams...

Col. Michael Vaughn, head of 20th Air Force operations, said that if you asked the missileers how they felt about changing to 72-hour shifts in October, they “wouldn’t have been very happy.” (See two items above.) Now however, most are...

The two Illinois Senators—Democrats Dick Durbin and Barack Obama—have written to the Air Force complaining about its recent Total Force Integration decision that would not put a new flying mission with the Air National Guard’s 183rd Fighter Wing at Springfield....

The Maine Air National Guard’s 101st Air Refueling Wing at Bangor received its first KC-135R—the R designates a re-engined KC-135—a gift from BRAC 2005, reports Associated Press news service. Ultimately, according to the BRAC commission decisions, the 101st will gain...

The Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing at Schenectady, N.Y., is headed to Afghanistan, marking the first time the 109th has deployed as a unit since the Vietnam War, reports the Albany Times-Union. Individual members of the C-130 tactical airlift...

Maintainers from various specialties joined forces at Beale AFB, Calif., recently to get the high-flying U-2 reconnaissance aircraft back into the air after USAF grounded the fleet on March 13 when airmen noted fuel seeping from the sump tank on...

The B-52 bombers currently on strategic presence rotation to Andersen AFB, Guam, flew on to Australia to participate in the latest Green Lightning exercise over the Delamere Bombing Range. While they were down under, the BUFFs did some flyovers at...

March 26, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 7 20 CAS/Armed Recon 66 28 94 Airlift 145 145 Air refueling 42 42 Total 79 35 187 301 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance