Daily Report

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sept. 5 the United States and China need to “step up” communications on a series of hot-button issues, including the Obama Administration’s new Asia-Pacific-focused defense strategy, nuclear weapons in Iran, and the turmoil...

Army Lt. Gen. Frank Grass will receive a fourth star on Sept. 7 and then replace Gen. Craig McKinley as National Guard Bureau chief during a change-of-responsibility ceremony at the Pentagon, announced the Defense Department. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will...

A pass and registration clerk with the 81st Security Forces Squadron at Keesler AFB, Miss., SSgt. Angelo C. Banks is one of the Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2012. During a deployment to the Transit Center...

At the start of the 2012-13 NBA season, there will be one member of the Dallas Mavericks who could not have been a rookie without being a veteran first. “I honestly wouldn’t be playing basketball if it wasn’t for the...

Engine failure caused by an ignition cable failure downed an MQ-1B Predator remotely piloted aircraft during a reconnaissance mission over Afghanistan on April 14, according to Air Combat Command. The RPA "experienced a single-point failure that simultaneously caused both ignition circuits to lose the ability to control engine ignitions," states ACC's Sept. 4 release summarizing the report of the command's accident investigation board. Controllers from the Ohio Air National Guard's 162nd Reconnaissance Squadron in Springfield followed the correct protocols to attempt the aircraft's recovery. However, they purposely crashed the RPA on an unpopulated mountainside after deeming it impossible to restart the engine or have the airplane glide back to base, according to the release. The RPA and a guided anti-surface missile survived mostly intact but were destroyed by an Army recovery team after it stripped the aircraft's sensitive components. The total value of the lost equipment was $3.8 million, according to ACC. (AIB report; caution, large-sized file.)

Since last year’s pullout of US forces from Iraq, the massive US training and advising apparatus has shrunk there, but some US military advisors remain. One of them is Lt. Col Chris Lachance who’s deployed from the 85th Flying Training...

Tennessee Air National Guard C-5 Galaxy maintainers are training with C-17 technicians at JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., in preparation for the Tennesseans’ transition to the Globemaster III. “Our goal is to help them reach ‘operational status’ and perform real-world missions for...

The Royal Air Force of Oman accepted its first C-130J Super Hercules transport from Lockheed Martin in a ceremony at the company’s Marietta, Ga., production facility, announced the company on Sept. 5. Defense Department and Lockheed Martin officials presented the...