TSgt. Wesley Rincker, an airman with the 509th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Whiteman AFB, Mo., received a Bronze Star medal March 2 for his actions as a convoy commander in Iraq from March to September 2008. While serving as the Delta convoy commander in the 424th Medium Truck Detachment’s Bravo flight, he completed 18 convoy missions in Iraq, transporting a total of 22,644 tons of cargo 618,804 miles. Brig. Gen. Garrett Harencak, 509th Bomb Wing commander, presented Rincker with the medal during a ceremony at Whiteman. (Whiteman photo caption by SrA. Cory Todd)
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.


