Briefer Briefs

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Remington took command of 7th Air Force during a Nov. 24 ceremony at Osan AB, South Korea, replacing Lt. Gen. Stephen Wood, who retires as of Jan. 1, 2009. • Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly has replaced Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering as director of the Missile Defense Agency; Obering will retire. • There’s a feature report on the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle schoolhouse mission being undertaken by the California Air National Guard’s 163rd Reconnaissance Wing at March ARB, Calif., in the Nov. 27 Press Enterprise. • Dr. Robert Barker’s “trailblazing” work in plasma physics, most recently on cold air plasma for use in absorbing or bending microwave signals, has earned the Air Force Office of Scientific Research program manager the 2009 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Plasma Science and Applications award. • On a calm, 10-degrees-below-zero day last week, Air Force civil engineers at Eielson AFB, Alaska, began a six- to 10-week process to construct an ice bridge across the Tanana River from Fairbanks to the Blair Lakes bombing range in the Pacific Alaska Range complex to facilitate movement of heavy-duty maintenance equipment that cannot be airlifted by helicopter; members of the 354th Civil Engineer Squadron build an ice bridge every two years.