Attending the Air Force Association’s Air & Space Conference in Washington, D.C., as one of USAF’s 12 outstanding airmen of the year, SSgt. Kenneth Walker, with the Washington Air National Guard’s 116th Air Support Operations Squadron, received another honor—award of the Bronze Star with Valor by Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz on Sept. 14 at the conference. Walker received the medal for his heroic actions during a firefight on May 24, 2009, while deployed as a tactical air control party member with the 817th Expeditionary ASOS and the Army’sTask Force SPADER in Afghanistan. (USAF release)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.