Cohen Confirmed as Defense Secretary On January 22, the Senate unanimously confirmed William S. Cohen to be the nation’s twentieth Secretary of Defense. He was sworn in January 24. He is the only Republican in President Bill Clinton’s new Cabinet.
The former Senator from Maine told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he was certain he would occasionally disagree with the President. However, he noted that he had a long record of creating “reasonable and responsible compromises,” citing this as evidence that he could effectively serve a Democratic administration.
Though he praised many Clinton Administration defense efforts, he did not hesitate to point out what he viewed as deficiencies. He contended that there is an urgent need to increase procurement budgets and to stop pushing modernization into the outyears. Decreased funding, he said, had placed the services at the limit of their ability to respond to two major regional conflicts at the same time.
He emphasized the importance of the Quadrennial Defense Review, due to Congress in May, and the need to withhold judgment on force structure, force readiness, and modernization until it is complete. He also emphasized that, though the Pentagon was achieving some savings with various reforms, he was skeptical about predictions of big savings in budget development because they might not materialize.
According to Secretary Cohen, continued erosion of research and development funding will jeopardize DoD’s ability to pursue the Joint Vision 2010 approach to warfare, which relies on the acquisition of advanced-technology systems. Unless the armed forces can increase their funding of those technologies, they won’t be available in time, he said.
Raytheon Opts for Electronics
A little more than a week earlier, on January 6, Raytheon also announced its buyout of Texas Instruments’ Defense Systems and Electronics Group for $2.95 billion in cash.
The combined total annual 1996 revenue will be about $21 billion, including more than $13 billion in defense electronics. Coupled with its 1995 acquisition of E-Systems Inc., Raytheon’s acquisition of Hughes Aircraft and the TI defense unit gives the Massachusetts-based company a dominant position in defense electronics. The other major stakeholder in the defense electronics market is Lockheed Martin.
With the Hughes Aircraft take-over, slated to conclude by midyear (pending government approval), and Raytheon TI Systems, Raytheon will have a total of 127,000 employees, up from about 75,000. It has four business sectors: commercial and defense electronics, engineering and construction, aircraft, and major appliances.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Raytheon Dennis J. Picard said that the strategic combination of Raytheon, TI Defense, and Hughes Defense enables the expanded company to “grow in the best segment of the defense business—defense electronics.”
The primary name will remain Raytheon Co. Hughes Aircraft will become a division titled Raytheon Hughes Systems, with current President John C. Weaver at the helm. C. Michael Armstrong, chairman and CEO of Hughes Electronics, will be a member of the Raytheon board of directors. GM plans to retain the remainder of Hughes Electronics, the telecommunications and space operations businesses.
Northrop Grumman Closes Plants The day before the public announcement of Raytheon’s purchase of Hughes Aircraft, Northrop Grumman announced that it would close four plants, transferring their work to other locations. The closures will eliminate 755 jobs and 2.5 million square feet of excess plant capacity.
A January 15 press release stated that the moves were part of a “continuing effort to consolidate facilities, streamline operations, and enhance its competitive position.” Industry analysts believe that position will be a limited one unless Northrop Grumman, the product of a 1994 merger, finds a new partner.
The Los Angeles–based company plans to close a defense electronics facility in Hawthorne, Calif., cutting 530 jobs by the end of the year. It expects to offer transfers to 240 employees and will move most of the work to its facilities in Rolling Meadows, Ill., and Benton Park, Pa.
By the middle of the year, it will also close a defense electronics unit in Great River, N. Y. Of the Great River plant’s 450 employees, the company plans to offer transfers for 120 to Rolling Meadows, Benton Park, and Bethpage, N. Y.
The other two plants slated to close, one in Stuart, Fla., and one in Perry, Ga., produce aerostructures and nacelles for commercial and military aircraft. The Stuart facility, which will close at the end of 1998, employs 500; approximately half may transfer to the company’s commercial aircraft facilities in Dallas, Tex., and Milledgeville, Ga.
The Perry plant will close within two years, but its 450 employees may relocate to a smaller plant Northrop Grumman plans to lease in middle Georgia. The Perry facility was originally built to manufacture the Triservice Standoff Attack Missile, which the Pentagon canceled in 1995.
Northrop Grumman had previously announced plans to close its B-2 plant in Pico Rivera, Calif., by the end of 1999.
Reserve Force Drawdown Continues
According to the Pentagon’s Fiscal 1997 Reserve Component Reduction Plan, released January 14, the number of force-structure positions will drop two percent—or 19,046 positions—from the Fiscal 1996 level. The end strength, or the number of positions authorized and funded by Congress, will fall by 3.1 percent—or 28,114 positions—from the previous year’s level.
The Air National Guard actually will post a gain of 289 force-structure positions in Fiscal 1997—rising from 113,344 last year to 113,633. However, ANG end strength will drop by 3,529, from 112,707 in Fiscal 1996 to 109,178.
The Air Force Reserve will lose 1,213 force-structure positions in Fiscal 1997, dropping from 76,073 to 74,860. The AFRES end strength will drop by 658—from 73,969 to 73,311.
Defense officials pointed out that the force-structure number does not reflect the actual number of personnel who will leave the service. They said that many of the personnel assigned to inactivated units will have the opportunity to join other units. Openings arise as the components shift positions from inactivated units to units in other locations as part of the ongoing force-structure activations, realignments, and unit relocations caused mainly by base closures.
Additionally, officials termed the 1997 cuts modest in comparison to the first three years, which incurred more than 80 percent of the reduction goals. They predicted that the next cuts, in Fiscal 1998, will be even smaller. The reductions are based on Fiscal 1999 force-structure levels—targeted at approximately 950,000 (891,000 for end strength)—established by the Bottom-Up Review.
B-2 Ready for Conventional Role Gen. Richard E. Hawley, commander of Air Combat Command, declared January 1 to be the day operational B-2 stealth bombers became ready to undertake a conventional bombing role.
The announcement established a limited operational capability (LOC) to permit their use in a conventional mode several months before the B-2’s planned initial operational capability, when the bombers officially will achieve their full warfighting capability.
General Hawley based the LOC status on last October’s highly successful bombing tests. During the test, three B-2s destroyed 16 targets using the Global Positioning System–Aided Targeting System with GPS-Aided Munitions from an altitude greater than 35,000 feet. Each B-2 can carry up to 16 2,000-pound GAMs, which can strike within 20 feet of a target.
Announcing the LOC at the naming ceremony for the B-2 Spirit of Kitty Hawk, held at Seymour Johnson AFB, N. C., in mid-December, the General said the B-2’s combination of low observability, large payload, near-precision munitions, and long range give the US a unique, unprecedented conventional military capability.
USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman added that past measurements calculated how many aircraft were needed to destroy a single target. Now the Air Force can think in terms of how many targets a single aircraft can destroy.
CALCM Scores Precision Strike On December 12, an AGM-86C Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile, launched from a B-52H and guided by GPS navigation satellites, successfully struck its target after a 4.5-hour test flight.
The test demonstrated that the CALCM can make precision strikes over great distances. It also proved that the conventional cruise missile could undertake a “steep-terminal-dive maneuver” designed to deliver a penetrator warhead on target. The Air Force stated that this was “the first time such a maneuver has been performed by a CALCM.”
The CALCM had been modified with a new, more accurate GPS receiver and included use of both Phase I and Phase II Wide-Area GPS Enhancement. The GPS constellation of satellites currently operates with Phase I of the enhancement program, but the Air Force integrated Phase II specifically for the December test. WAGE is a prototype system designed to boost GPS constellation performance.
CALCMs used in the September 3–4 strike against Iraq featured an earlier generation, single-channel GPS receiver and a blast fragmentation warhead. The version tested in December doubled the accuracy and warhead effectiveness of the earlier CALCMs, according to program officials.
Boeing Air-Launched Missiles program manager Carl Avila said that the improvements provide a baseline for future CALCM models but also can be easily incorporated into missiles now in the field. The missiles are being converted for the conventional role at Boeing facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn., from surplus AGM-86B ALCMs for about $150,000 per missile.
JDAM Marks Successes The McDonnell Douglas Joint Direct Attack Munition scored successful flights in tests conducted at Eglin AFB, Fla., in November and December.
The JDAM is a kit designed to guide weapons in all weather from any launch altitude by using GPS along with a weapon inertial navigation system. The combined USAF-industry flight-test program uses an F-16C as the primary test-bed.
In late November, a JDAM-equipped Mk. 84 2,000-pound bomb guided by GPS successfully hit within six meters of its ground target. The circular-error-probable distance was 9.3 meters. Another November flight tested the JDAM-equipped bomb’s maneuverability and its autopilot system response to high-angle-of-attack guidance commands. Performance matched expectations, stated company officials.
The JDAM test program scored three successes on December 6. Two were GPS-aided JDAM-equipped Mk. 84 drops demonstrating impact angles of 65° at 4.9 nautical miles downrange and 75° at 3.8 nm. The first struck the ground within six meters of the target and the second within three meters.
For the third test, a JDAM-equipped BLU-109 bomb demonstrated aerodynamic and autopilot characteristics and performed as predicted.
The JDAM program will begin low-rate initial production of 937 units this spring. The program is also slated to enter combined developmental testing and operational testing for the B-1B, B-2, B-52, and F/A-18 this year.
Return-to-Fly Boards Dropped For the past six years, special boards met semiannually to select the few rated officers serving in staff jobs who would get to return to flying jobs. Not anymore.
The program established to select which field-grade pilots and navigators would return to bomber and fighter cockpits has ended. General Fogleman ended the “return-to-fly” board process last year, placing cockpit reassignments back into the mainstream.
The boards were set up during the drawdown, according to Air Force Personnel Center officials, because the number of retraining opportunities for field-grade pilots and navigators was extremely limited. Now the situation has stabilized—the number of training slots nearly equals the number of qualified officers.
“Flying assignments for field-grade officers should not be any different” from assignments for other officers, said Lt. Col. Chris Tope, AFPC’s Fighter and Bomber Assignments branch chief. “We’ve added field-grade fighter and bomber assignments to our Electronic Bulletin Board System showing cockpit availability based on training slots.”
He added that final assignment selection is “based on major command requirements, unit manning, and experience levels.” Officials also consider time-on-station and currency (time out of cockpit) requirements and career timing.
A big plus for flyers now holding staff jobs is that they can apply for return-to-fly training throughout the year. Once they become eligible, they do not have to wait for a semiannual board.
AFPC officials noted the high selection rate for the first Officer Assignment System electronic bulletin board advertisements for pilot training slots for March through June 1997. They chose 31 of the 34 eligible fighter pilot applicants and two of four eligible bomber pilots.
First C-141s To Retire The Air Force announced December 20 that Travis AFB, Calif., will retire seven C-141 Starlifters in Fiscal Year 1997. The service plans to retire the entire fleet of 154 C-141 cargo aircraft by 2006.
A 1994 Scientific Advisory Board, convened by the Air Force in response to Congressional concern, recommended retirement of the fleet. After examining the service life of the C-141, the board determined that flight beyond 45,000 equivalent hours might not be viable. It found that widespread fatigue damage experienced by the aircraft could jeopardize the fail-safe features of the basic C-141 design.
The C-141 first entered the Air Force inventory in 1965, with Military Airlift Command.
New Office Tackles TAMD Pentagon officials announced in January the creation of the Joint Theater Air Missile Defense Organization (JTAMDO), naming USAF Maj. Gen. Stephen B. Plummer as the first director.
The new agency will integrate DoD requirements and acquisition activities for theater air and missile defense (TAMD) to provide theater commanders with “an improved capability to defend against air and missile threats.” It will develop operational architectures, define system interoperabilities, and validate new capabilities through simulation and technology demonstrations.
Under the new management structure, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) will translate the JTAMDO-developed operational architecture into system architectures and lead program acquisition activities.
The JTAMDO will work with theater commanders and the services to develop a joint roadmap for mission requirements, architecture, and capabilities. The JTAMDO requirements roadmap, coupled with a BMDO-developed acquisition roadmap, will form a TAMD master plan for validation by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council.
Battle Labs Seek Innovation The Air Force plans to set up six small, focused “battle labs” this year to take aim at its newly defined six core competencies outlined in “Global Engagement: A Vision for the Twenty-First-Century Air Force.”
Despite use of the term “lab,” these battle labs will not operate as traditional research facilities. Instead, these new units, with 15 to 25 workers each, will focus on identifying innovative operational concepts that take advantage of mature technologies, rather than developing new technologies.
Air Combat Command will oversee three battle labs: Air Expeditionary Force Battle Lab, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho; Battle Management Battle Lab, Hurlburt Field, Fla.; and Unmanned Air Vehicle Battle Lab, Eglin AFB, Fla.
Air Force Space Command will direct the Space Battle Lab at Falcon AFB, Colo. The newly established Air Force Security Forces Center will oversee the Force Protection Battle Lab at Lackland AFB, Tex. The Air Intelligence Agency will direct the Information Warfare Battle Lab at Kelly AFB, Tex.
According to a USAF statement, the battle labs will sustain their work and any initiatives primarily from within existing Air Force resources. The service plans to reorder priorities and allocate assets and capabilities temporarily as necessary.
An air force–level board of directors will assess concepts demonstrated by the battle labs for integration into ongoing programs.
First Waverider Powered Flight An 80-pound, remotely piloted model of a hypersonic flight vehicle took off under its own power on December 16 to make its maiden flight. The 100-inch-long, wedge-shaped Low-Observable Flight Test Experiment (Loflyte) flew for 34 seconds and reached an altitude of 150 feet over Mojave Airfield, Calif.
Loflyte, a model of a vehicle that might fly at Mach 5.5, is a waverider concept based on research from the X-30 National Aerospace Plane program. Waverider vehicles are triangular platforms designed to surf on the high-pressure field created by the vehicles’ bow shock as they exceed the speed of sound. The December flight marked the first time a waverider vehicle had taken off under its own power, according to Air Force officials.
USAF’s Wright Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, manages the Loflyte program in partnership with NASA. Both agencies expect to derive vehicles that might serve as low-cost hypersonic transports or small satellite launchers.
In particular, NASA wants to use the Loflyte neural-network flight-control system (FCS) for its research program for Hyper X, a Mach 10 lifting body. The Hyper X research program, scheduled to begin flight tests this year, could lead to an ultrafast atmospheric transport or the first stage of a two-stage launch vehicle.
Following additional flight tests to determine airworthiness at its high takeoff and landing speeds, Wright Lab engineers will install the neural-network FCS in Loflyte vehicle number one. Neural networks allow computers to learn—similar to the human thought process—and, in this case, would help keep the vehicle stable.
Current plans call for a second Loflyte vehicle to follow later this year. It will include GPS features and fly-by-light controls, which use optical cables to signal the vehicle’s control surfaces, as well as a neural network. The neural network from vehicle number one would go into the Hyper X.
Funding for the program comes from the Air Force, NASA, the Navy, and the National Science Foundation. It involves a number of Small Business Innovative Research contracts. According to Wright Lab officials, SBIR-funded research of neural networks is already in use in B-2 stealth bombers.
Statistically Speaking USAF statistics for the first quarter of Fiscal 1997 reported that the service had 530,085 members: 305,924 enlisted troops, 75,794 officers, and 148,367 civilians.
According to the Air Force’s statistical report, the Reserve Officers Training Corps still provides the greatest proportion of officers—41.63 percent. Officer Training School provides 20.95 percent and the US Air Force Academy 19.1 percent. Another 18.32 percent received commissions from other sources, such as direct appointment.
The service has 14,762 pilots, 5,535 navigators, and 36,400 nonrated line officers below the grade of colonel. There are 320 female pilots, or 2.17 percent, and 100 female navigators, or 1.81 percent.
In 1975, women represented just 5.4 percent (33,000) of USAF’s active-duty force. Today their numbers have not quite doubled at 64,111, but they constitute nearly 17 percent of USAF active-duty personnel.
The percentage of minorities based on race has risen. In 1975, racial minorities made up only 14 percent of the force, compared to almost 23 percent today.
Air Force members who are married make up 67.09 percent of the force. There are 18,378 military couples, with 1,050 of them married to members of other services.
Dog Tags Identify World War II Aircrew An Air Force Reserve C-141 aircrew flew to Beijing, China, January 15 to recover the remains of 10 airmen presumed killed when their World War II B-24J Liberator crashed August 13, 1944, after completing a bombing mission against Japanese shipping near what is now Taiwan.
According to the Associated Press news service, an official Chinese news report stated that the wreckage was found by farmers searching for herbs on October 2. The B-24 had crashed in an extremely remote location and lay at the bottom of a ravine 62 miles south of Guilin in the Guangxi Province on China’s southern coast.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin turned over photographs of five military dog tags and a videotape of the crash site to President Bill Clinton when they met in the Philippines in November. Then–Defense Secretary William J. Perry received two of the dog tags from his Chinese counterpart, at the Pentagon in December.
The AFRES crew from the 446th Airlift Wing, McChord AFB, Wash., returned the remains to the Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. A US search team visited the site to search for more remains and equipment.
The B-24J crew belonged to the 375th Bomb Squadron, 308th Bomb Group, Fourteenth Air Force.
Enlisted Promotions Rise Air Force officials announced in December that promotion rates to staff, technical, and master sergeants will increase this year to the highest levels seen in the past decade.
The drawdown forced the service to stick with the minimum promotion rates set forth in the Total Objective Plan for Career Airman Personnel to ensure it would not have too many noncommissioned officers, according to Lt. Gen. Michael D. McGinty, USAF’s deputy chief of staff for Personnel. “However, as end strength and requirements stabilize, we now have the opportunity to raise our promotion rates,” he added.
Staff sergeant promotion rates will increase by about one percentage point, to 17.6 percent, the highest since 1987 with the exception of 1995. At one time during the last 10 years, the rate went as low as 5.5 percent.
The greatest increase—more than three percentage points higher than last year—will be in promotions to technical sergeant. The 1997 rate will be 14.7 percent, which also has not happened since 1987. The lowest promotion rate for technical sergeants was 11.1 percent in 1988.
The rate to master sergeant will increase by 1.7, reaching 21.2 percent. The lowest percentage for promotion to the top three enlisted levels was 18.9 percent in 1990.
General McGinty said that increasing the rates for 1997 “is the right thing to do for our people and the Air Force. This will balance our grades and continue to provide a good opportunity for career progression.”
Region VI Takes Specialists to Patients For the past two years, teams of Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center specialists from Lackland AFB, Tex., have made day-trips to each military medical facility within Tricare Region VI, covering parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Tricare is the Pentagon’s managed health-care program.
In Fiscal 1996 alone, they conducted 179 medical outreach missions, not only saving patients time and money but also saving more than $286,000 for Region VI, according to the American Forces Press Service.
Visiting Army, Navy, and Air Force bases every other month via a USAF C-21 are specialists in cardiology, dermatology, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, pediatrics, pediatric neurology, and podiatry. Other subspecialists participate as needed. They usually see patients most of the day, discuss treatment regimens with local doctors, and may even lecture to the medical staffs.
They extend the kind of care no longer available at most bases because of reductions in hospitals, clinics, and medical staffs. The program especially benefits older retirees, who had to make trips to Wilford Hall for all their care when smaller base facilities could no longer treat them. Although some patients still must travel to Wilford Hall, follow-up appointments can be done at their nearest base by a traveling doctor.
World War II Memorial Design Selected On January 17, President Clinton unveiled the winning design for the national World War II Memorial.
The American Battle Monuments Commission chose the design for the memorial, which will stand on the National Mall between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, from 400 entries. It will be at the eastern end of the Reflecting Pool.
The Secretary of the Interior, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Fine Arts Commission had not yet approved the design at press time.
Created by architect Friedrich St. Florian, the design features a sunken plaza framed by high stone walls and 50 fluted 40-foot columns. Born in Austria, Mr. St. Florian has been associated with the Rhode Island School of Design for more than 30 years.
Congress authorized the memorial in 1993. It will cost approximately $100 million, which the commission must raise before it breaks ground. If successful, they plan to open on Veterans Day, 2000.
News Notes Lt. Gen. Lloyd W. Newton, USAF’s assistant vice chief of staff, will replace Gen. Billy J. Boles, as commander of Air Education and Training Command on April 1, when General Boles retires.
Gone, but not forgotten—a Dyess AFB, Tex., spokesperson confirmed in December that before Lt. Col. Ralph Mollet, a weapon systems officer, retired, he became the first crew member to fly more than 2,500 hours in the B-1B. He bested the milestone by 2.2 hours on his last flight on October 26, 1996.
The Pentagon announced December 23 that officials had approved a revised DarkStar High-Altitude Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program plan, in which vehicle number two should begin flight tests this summer. It also includes production of two additional DarkStar systems, with delivery in summer 1998. Approval came after an independent review of the program following the crash of the first DarkStar vehicle in April 1996.
Air Combat Command received the second production Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) E-8C on December 22 at Rhein-Main AB, Germany, and began flying operational missions three days later. System Program Director Col. Robert H. Latiff returned the last E-8C test aircraft from Rhein-Main on December 25, for the first time leaving only production versions in Europe. Northrop Grumman is working on the third production aircraft now and expects to deliver it to the 93d Air Control Wing, Robins AFB, Ga., this fall.
An Electronic Systems Center concept, the prototyping and demonstration location, is at work at the Logicon Geodynamics facility in Tampa, Fla., analyzing imagery exploitation techniques for coastal mine detection for US Special Operations Command. The PADL customizes computerized research and development facilities collocated with a client, in this case USSOCOM, to meet the client’s special needs. It enables ESC to deliver a quick “80 percent” fix, then complete their work while the product is in use, said an ESC official.
USAF’s Rome Laboratory, N. Y., officially extended its long-running cooperation in voice-recognition and radar-testing technologies with the Federal Aviation Administration in December through a memorandum of understanding. The lab and the FAA are currently working on three projects: affordable, dual-use digital signal path technology for multiband, multimode radios; a millimeter-wave focal plane array radar to detect concealed weapons; and an interoperable tactical radio.
The Air Force has increased its limit for the Fiscal 1997 officer drawdown from 430 to 600 for lieutenant colonels and below. Additionally, it has expanded eligibility to include limited active-duty service commitment waivers for permanent change of station moves, Air Force Institute of Technology master’s degrees, and below-the-zone promotees. It will also offer extended ADSC waivers for ROTC, US Air Force Academy, Officer Training School, and all other commissioning sources.
Following a two-year study to review the impacts generated by a smaller noncommissioned officer population and base closures, USAF decided to cut the number of Stateside NCO academy classes from seven to six this year, then resume a schedule of seven in 1998. It will also permanently close the academy at Barksdale AFB, La., this month and close others over the next few years as it moves to a system of regional academies.
USAF airfield operators at Prince Sultan AB, Saudi Arabia, began work with the first mobile control tower of its kind—Tactical Systems Weather–14—on December 25. A cramped work area and old equipment shared by American, French, and Saudi controllers led a team from the 3d Combat Communications Mobility Squadron, Tinker AFB, Okla., to weld together two TSW-7 units. Once in place, members of the 4404th Communications Squadron, Prince Sultan AB, and 5th Combat Communications Group, Robins AFB, Ga., upgraded the equipment.
More than 30,000 USAF members became eligible last month to switch from the Veterans’ Educational Assistance Program (VEAP), which applied to airmen who entered the service between 1977 and 1985, to the higher-return Montgomery GI Bill, which replaced VEAP in 1985. Airmen enrolled in VEAP will receive full refunds if they enroll in the GI Bill, but the conversion offer is only open until October 8, 1997.
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is now an approved provider for merchandise covered by Tricare/CHAMPUS. AAFES customers may purchase durable medical equipment and other prescribed goods from an exchange store or the AAFES mail-order catalog. They must submit a proof of payment, generally a cash register receipt, and file their claim through their Tricare regional provider as with other Tricare/CHAMPUS claims.
The 175th Wing’s 135th Airlift Squadron of the Maryland ANG will receive the first of the new C-130J transport aircraft in 1998. According to Maryland’s Congressional delegation, who wrote to then–Defense Secretary Perry last summer to urge that Maryland be first in line, the state’s ANG unit currently has the C-130s “with the greatest amount of flying time and highest degree of corrosion.”
Officials at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Tex., announced that they have the North American P-51D Mustang, SuSu, on display through May 4, 1997.
Queen Elizabeth II will perform the opening ceremony for the American Air Museum in Britain on August 1, at Duxford Airfield, UK. The museum campaign began in 1985 and has raised $15.5 million toward a total project cost of $17 million. The campaign was supported by Gen. Jimmy Doolittle and actor James Stewart. The current chairmen are Charlton Heston and Field Marshal Lord Bramall.
SrA. Ed Quirk, 357th Fighter Squadron, Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., received an inaugural Citizen Certificate of Appreciation December 13 from the Tucson police chief for helping apprehend two suspected robbers. Airman Quirk tailed the getaway car to a house and provided the location and license plate number to the police.
Maj. Gen. Eugene L. Eubank, USAF (Ret.), who began his aviation career in 1918, celebrated his 104th birthday on December 2. Helen, his wife of 76 years, is 96 years old. The General learned flying from the Wright brothers and had Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell and Gen. H. H. “Hap” Arnold as his mentors.
Obituary Viewed as the architect of the modern Ready Reserve, Maj. Gen. Winston P. Wilson, USAF (Ret.), died December 31 after a stroke. He was 85. Beginning his military career as an aircraft mechanic in the Arkansas ANG in 1929, he earned a pilot’s license in 1936 and served in World War II and the Korean War. Between wars, he revamped the Arkansas ANG with innovative flying training programs. In the 1950s as deputy chief of the National Guard Bureau, he headed the Air National Guard, creating a strengthened force that proved its worth during the 1961 Berlin crisis. In 1963, he became NGB chief, overseeing Army and ANG units nationwide.
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Raytheon and Hughes: Major Defense Programs Hughes Aircraft is a leading supplier of advanced defense electronics systems and services, including naval systems; airborne and groundbased radars; ground-, air-, and ship-launched missiles; tactical communications; and training simulators and services. It is also active in the fields of Global Positioning System technology, infrared/electro-optics, and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). Hughes missile programs include Maverick, TOW, Medium Extended Air Defense System, Tomahawk, Stinger, Rolling Airframe Missile, AMRAAM, Sparrow, Evolved Seasparrow, and the new AIM-9X Sidewinder.Raytheon Electronics Systems is a major provider of groundbased and shipboard radars, military communication systems, and naval combat control, sonar, and mine-hunting systems. It is one of three teams selected for Phase II of the Navy–Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Arsenal Ship program. Raytheon Electronics Systems missile systems include Patriot, Hawk, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, Sidewinder, Standard, and Sparrow. Raytheon E-Systems is a leader in defense systems integration and provides reconnaissance and surveillance and C3I systems, mass data collection, interpretation and dissemination, specialized aircraft modification services, and shipboard and airborne countermeasures systems. Raytheon TI Systems joins Raytheon as a major supplier of precision guided munitions, including the Paveway laser-guided weapon system, the USAF-Navy Joint Standoff Weapon, the Army’s Javelin antitank system, and the High-Speed Antiradiation Missile. It also contributes to P-3 and S-3 ocean surveillance systems, F-22 airborne radars, and Low-Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night. It produces electro-optics products, such as sensors for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, M1 Abrams tank, F-117, and F-18. |
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50 Years Ago in Air Force Magazine March 1947 On the cover: A Republic Seabee passes the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. The aircraft was painted red for this shot because the stock silver finish did not photograph well in color.¦ AFA National President James H. Doolittle alerts members that the Army Air Forces had been “relegated to a secondary role” in 1946, receiving less than $1.25 billion out of the $12 billion appropriated by Congress for national defense. He quotes the assessment of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer of Air Defense Command that “the present AAF couldn’t punch its way out of a paper bag.” ¦ The AFA Board of Directors issues a formal statement supporting unification of the armed forces under a “Secretary of National Defense” and with co-equal Army, Navy, and Air Force branches. ¦ Members of Glenn Miller’s fabled wartime Air Force band have regrouped under the leadership of Tex Beneke, who had been with the Miller band since its beginning in 1938. The Beneke group is recognized as the official band of the Air Force Association and is “drawing record-breaking crowds in theaters and night spots from coast to coast.” ¦ Wright Field announces that during 1946, the Army Air Forces “took delivery of only 1,010 military aircraft of all types.” AFA news: AFA “wing group” organizations have now been formed in all states. . . . This issue reports a “considerable sprinkling” of AFA members in Congress and pictures five more—Rep. William Jennings Bryan Dorn of South Carolina, Rep. John Bell Williams of Mississippi, Sen. W. E. Jenner of Indiana, Rep. W. J. Miller of Connecticut, and Rep. Carl Albert of Oklahoma—receiving their AFA pins. Coming Events Shell Air and Sea Show at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., May 3–4, will honor USAF’s fiftieth anniversary this year. Indy 500 Salute to the fiftieth anniversary of the Air Force, May 23–26, features the USAF band and a flyover on May 25 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ind. Air Fete ’97, the largest military airshow and static display in Europe and its only official commemoration of USAF’s fiftieth anniversary, will be held May 24–25 at RAF Mildenhall, UK. The Memorial Day Concert at the US Capitol, Washington D. C., features a salute to the Air Force. USAF is sponsoring a historical symposium on the Air Force, 1947–97, in Arlington, Va., May 28–29. New York city’s salute to the Air Force includes a USAF musical event at the World Financial Center and static displays at Floyd Bennett Field, June 20–22. The Quad City Airshow in Davenport, Iowa, June 20–23, features a Midwest Golden Salute to the Air Force. The San Diego Aerospace Museum has set up special Air Force exhibits, including a history from 1909 to the present, which may become a permanent display, and one focusing on the last 50 years. Both will run until at least December 31. NASA has offered to carry USAF memorabilia from each major command aboard space shuttle flights throughout 1997. The Atlantis flight on January 12 carried cloth patches of each wing and numbered air force within Air Education and Training Command, a pewter AETC medallion, and six commemorative coins from the Air Force Personnel Center. |
| Senior Staff Changes
RETIREMENT: M/G Marcelite Jordan Harris.
PROMOTION: CHANGES: B/G (M/G selectee) William J. Dendinger, from Dep. Chief of the Chaplain Service, Hq. USAF, Bolling AFB, D. C., to Chief of the Chaplain Service, Hq. USAF, Bolling AFB, D. C., replacing retiring M/G Arthur S. Thomas . . . Col. (B/G selectee) Michael N. Farage, from Cmdr., 58th SOW, AETC, Kirtland AFB, N. M., to Dep. Commanding Gen., Jt. Spec. Ops. Command, USSOCOM, Fort Bragg, N. C., replacing B/G (M/G selectee) Maxwell C. Bailey . . . Col. (B/G selectee) Gary W. Heckman, from Chief, Engagement Assessment Div., Plans, Policy, and Strategic Assessment, J-5, Hq. USSOCOM, MacDill AFB, Fla., to Dir. for Resources, J-8, Hq. USSOCOM, MacDill AFB, Fla. . . . B/G Paul V. Hester, from Cmdr., 35th FW, PACAF, Misawa AB, Japan, to Cmdr., 53d Wing, Air Warfare Ctr., ACC, Eglin AFB, Fla., replacing B/G (M/G selectee) Ronald E. Keys. M/G Clinton V. Horn, from Dir. of Ops., J-3, Hq. USSOCOM, MacDill AFB, Fla., to Principal Ass’t Dep. Under Sec’y of the AF (Int’l Affairs), Office of the Under Sec’y of the AF, OSAF, Washington, D. C., replacing retired M/G Hiram H. Burr, Jr. . . . Col. (B/G selectee) Hiram L. Jones, from Command Chaplain, Hq. ACC, Langley AFB, Va., to Dep. Chief of the Chaplain Service, Hq. USAF, Bolling AFB, D. C., replacing B/G (M/G selectee) William J. Dendinger . . . B/G (M/G selectee) Ronald E. Keys, from Cmdr., 53d Wing, Air Warfare Ctr., ACC, Eglin AFB, Fla., to Cmdr., AFDC, Maxwell AFB, Ala., replacing Col. Robert D. Coffman . . . L/G (Gen. selectee) Lloyd W. Newton, from Ass’t Vice C/S, Hq. USAF, Washington, D. C., to Cmdr., Hq. AETC, Randolph AFB, Tex., replacing retiring Gen. Billy J. Boles. M/G Stephen B. Plummer, from Dir., Ops. (Current Readiness and Capabilities), J-38, Jt. Staff, Washington, D. C., to Dir., Jt. Theater Air Missile Defense Organization, J-8, Jt. Staff, Washington, D. C. . . . Col. (B/G selectee) Andrew W. Smoak, Dep. Dir., P&P, Hq. ACC, Langley AFB, Va., to Cmdr., 2d BW, ACC, Barksdale AFB, La., replacing retiring B/G David L. Young. . . Col. (B/G selectee) Bruce A. Wright, from Dir., Ops., J-3, US Forces Japan, PACOM, Yokota AB, Japan, to Cmdr., 35th FW, PACAF, Misawa AB, Japan, replacing B/G Paul V. Hester . . . B/G Michael E. Zettler, from Cmdr., 82d Training Wing, AETC, Sheppard AFB, Tex., to Dir., Maintenance, DCS/Installations and Log., Hq. USAF, Washington, D. C., replacing retired M/G Marcelite Jordan Harris. SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE (SES) RETIREMENTS: Samuel L. Croucher, Maurice R. Himmelberg, Olin A. Howard, Ira L. Kemp, Merrill L. Minges, Philip Panzarella, Jesse Ryles.
SES CHANGES: Christopher Blake, to Dir. of Engineering, C-17, ASC, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, replacing Eric E. Abell . . . Roger M. Blanchard, to Ass’t DCS/Personnel, Hq. USAF, Washington, D. C. . . . Otha B. Davenport, to Dir., Engineering and Propulsion, ASC, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio . . . Timothy L. Dues, to Dir., P&P, Wright Lab, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, replacing Keith Richey. Charles B. Hogge, to Chief Scientist, Space and Missile Technology, Phillips Lab, AFMC, Kirtland AFB, N. M. . . . Gerald B. Kauvar, to Dep. Dir. for Prgms. & Eval., Hq. USAF, Washington, D. C. . . . Horst R. Kelly, to Exec. Dir., Hq. AFPC, Randolph AFB, Tex., replacing Roger M. Blanchard . . . Terry R. Little, to Prgm. Dir., JASSM, ASC, Eglin AFB, Fla. Lester McFawn, to Dir., Avionics, Wright Lab, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, replacing retired Jesse Ryles . . . Robert E. Mulcahy, Jr., to Dir., Sys. Mgmt., ASC, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio . . . Susan A. O’Neal, to Chief, AFPOA, Washington, D. C., replacing Horst Kelly . . . Ronald L. Orr, to Ass’t DCS/Installations and Log., Hq. USAF, Washington, D. C. Vincent J. Russo, to Dep. Dir., Wright Lab, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, replacing O. Lester Smithers . . . S. Lee Semiatin, to Sr. Scientist, Materials Processing/Processing Service, Wright Lab, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio . . . O. Lester Smithers, to Dir., Engineering and Technical Mgmt., ASC, AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, replacing retired Maurice Himmelberg . . . James R. Speer, to Ass’t Auditor Gen., Field Activities, AFAA, Arlington, Va., replacing Karla W. Corcoran . . . Robert D. Wolff, to Dir., Plans and Integration, DCS/Installations and Log., Hq. USAF, Washington, D. C., replacing Ronald L. Orr. |