Air Combat Command plans to send 12 F-22As and more than 250 airmen to the Japanese island of Okinawa in February, a deployment welcomed by US Pacific Air Forces, which is slated to get its own Raptors. However, the news...

The Air Force’s RC-135 Rivet Joint force now can claim to have been continuously deployed for 6,000 days. Last fall, we noted that one of the airmen who maintain this high demand/low density electronic reconnaissance aircraft has deployed 18 times...

The Happy Hooligans of the North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Fighter Wing have received their first of eight C-21 aircraft. The Hooligans had to give up their F-16s, courtesy of BRAC 2005, and now will fly the C-21 until...

The Air Force has openings in chronic undermanned career fields for enlisted airmen who have been told to retrain—or else—but first they needed to submit an application by Monday. Those who failed to meet that deadline can kiss their blue...

New Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday in a joint press briefing with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on the Administration’s new Iraq plan that he was implementing several changes to reserve component management, following several months of assessment within...

Speaking with defense reporters the morning after President Bush’s Iraq strategy address, US Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Gen. William Wallace said the Army will need new recruiting and training capabilities to handle the upcoming increase in end strength. (The...

All four services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for the month of December, with the Army bringing in 161 more recruits than its goal of 700. The Air Force met its goal of 2,330. Retention also remains largely on...

Training begins today at Schriever AFB, Colo. on Air Force Space Command’s most advanced payload—the Space Based Infrared System’s Highly Elliptical Orbit-1, launched last fall. According to an AFSPC release, the command has selected 10 airmen—crew commanders and crew chiefs...

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne has high praise for airmen in a recent letter, noting that they continue to accomplish “amazing things” every day. Traveling within Southwest Asia over the holidays, Wynne said he saw airmen who had added IR sensors to their vehicles to search for improvised explosive devices. He wrote, “Airmen continue to impress me with their passion for finding a better way.” However, even though Wynne believes no one else can do what the Air Force does on a daily basis, he noted, “We still have room for improvement” to maintain that excellence.

Air Force aircraft maintainers at Travis AFB, Calif., and Robins AFB, Ga., have been demonstrating the Telephonics TruLink Wireless System. The demonstration was part of WIAGO ( Wireless Intercom for Aircraft Ground Operations)—an initiative of the Air Mobility Warfare Center’s...

There really was an institutional bias within Veterans Affairs against a Congressional dictum to centralize its information technology processes and The Hill has a “secretly recorded” tape to prove it, reports the Congressional newspaper. On this tape, one VA official...

The mysterious and bizarre deaths of more than 60 birds, and reports of people being sickened in downtown Austin, Tex., Jan. 8 brought out the Texas National Guard’s 6th Civil Support Team, made up of 22 members of the Texas...

Jan. 10, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 15 11 26 CAS/Armed Recon 32 33 65 Airlift 130 130 Air refueling 30 30 Total 47 44 160 251 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance