Officials with the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., will shut down the base’s runway on Aug. 1 for repairs. During the shutdown, several of the wing’s B-1B bombers will temporarily operate out of Dyess AFB, Tex., the Air Force’s other B-1 installation. “The B-1s are scheduled to be diverted to Dyess at the end of July,” said MSgt. Gerald Gilchrist, 28th Operations Support Squadron deputy airfield manager. “This is nothing out of the ordinary and is common practice when repairs are being made on an installation runway. Ellsworth hosted B-1s from Dyess when the runway there was being renovated.” The B-1s are expected to return when portions of the runway reopen in mid September. The entire airfield is scheduled to reopen by the end of October. The Rapid City Journal reported that about 200 Ellsworth airmen will travel to Dyess with the bombers. (Ellsworth report by SrA. Jarad A. Denton)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.