Air Force, Army, and NATO joint terminal attack controllers and tactical air control party members are taking part in exercise Allied Strike that runs through Aug. 5 in Grafenwoehr, Germany. Allied Strike is a US Air Forces in Europe-sponsored, annual close-air-support exercise designed to build partnership capacity and help refine the latest operational CAS tactics. This year members of the Belgian, Danish, Dutch, German, and Portuguese militiaries are participating, along with their US compatriots. During the training, the JTACs and TACPs will be integrated into organizations modeled on the ones in use today in Afghanistan. “Almost everyone here will be going to Afghanistan at some point, and it’s important we replicate real-world scenarios,” said Capt. Todd Judice, assistant director of operations for the 4th Air Operations Support Group at Ramstein AB, Germany. (Grafenwoehr report by SrA. Scott Saldukas) (Allied Strike Web site)
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.