Maj. Kevin H. Sonnenberg, 42, a pilot with the Ohio Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing in Toledo, was killed June 15 when his F-16 crashed north of Baghdad during a close air support mission, per official news sources. The...

The Pentagon has identified Lt. Col. Glade L. Felix, 52, of Lake Park, Ga., as having died June 11 while deployed to Southwest Asia from the 622nd Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Robins AFB, Ga. An investigation is ongoing to determine...

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne writes in his latest Letter to Airmen that USAF has “no plans to extend our restructuring beyond the current 40,000 reduction.” The Air Force has been drawing down its personnel for the past two fiscal years under a planned 40,000 full time equivalent cut that would take the force to around 316,000 by 2009 as a means to pay for weapons system recapitalization. However, Wynne notes that the service still is reconsidering whether it can continue toward a full cut of 40,000 because of Administration plans to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps. Wynne writes, “Land component growth may require our Total Force drawdown to level off, while the size of specific elements within our Air Force might actually need to grow as well.”

Gene Rector of the Macon Telegraph reports on the problems that still confront the Air Force’s one—and so far only—blended wing, the 116th Air Control Wing at Robins AFB, Ga. It has been five years since the service created the...

Air Force Space Command plans to redesignate one unit and inactivate several organizations today toward redefining 14th Air Force into a new component-numbered air force named 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic-Space). The space C-NAF element gaining a new designation...

Air Education and Training Command has issued a draft environmental impact statement on the three proposed locations for USAF’s new common battlefield airmen training center. AETC plans to consolidate similar training for all manner of battlefield airmen, those airmen whose...

Retired Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, a fighter ace in World War II and MiG killer in the Vietnam War, died June 14 at age 84. West Point graduate Robin Olds, the son of Army Air Corps Maj. Gen. Robert Olds,...

Retired Air Force Col. Mike Butler, working for DynCorp Intl. in Iraq as a senior logistics program manager was killed June 12 near Tikrit, while traveling with a convoy that came under attack. Butler had served as the logistics director...

The Virginia Air National Guard’s 192nd Fighter Wing at Richmond, Va., plans to fly its last training sorties in the F-16 Viper on June 20, marking the occasion with a special aerial event. Many of the wing’s airmen already have...

Workmen in the Netherlands discovered the remains of an Army Air Forces P-47 that crashed in 1943 during a bomber escort mission returning from Germany. Workmen found the wreckage in April and Royal Netherlands Air Force and local officials near...

June 14, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 10 26 CAS/Armed Recon 67 39 106 Airlift 141 141 Air refueling 52 52 Total 83 49 193 325 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...