A C-17 transport from McChord AFB, Wash., later this month will deliver aid provided by a local non-profit project in the area around Tacoma and Olympia, Wash., to the Mexican city of Ayutla, in that country’s Jalisco state. Tacoma’s News Tribune reported Aug. 29 that members of Air Force Reserve Command’s 446th Airlift Wing at McChord will fly the C-17, which will carry a firetruck and 12 pallets of emergency equipment, including medical supplies, computers, and safety gear for Ayutla, on Sept. 19 to Mexico. The aid project was begun after news came to light of the deaths of three people in a car accident around Ayutla due to the fact that the city had no ambulance to transport them to a hospital. Already the project has provided police cars and an ambulance to the city. Use of the C-17 in this support role is made possible by the Denton amendment, which allows the US military to use surplus transport capacity to deliver humanitarian supplies.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.