The New York Air National Guard’s 174th Fighter Wing yesterday started its 18-month transition from the F-16 fighter to the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle with the departure of the first two F-16s for good from the wing’s home at Hancock Field ANG Base, near Syracuse. These F-16s are headed for a new assignment at Edwards AFB, Calif., and represent the beginning of the end of the 174th’s F-16 mission, according to a release by the New York State division of Military and Naval Affairs. Col. Charles Dorsey, the wing’s vice commander, said it was “bittersweet” to see the first F-16s go, as the unit has been flying Vipers since 1988. But added that the unit is “excited to open a new chapter of combat aviation” with the coming MQ-9 mission. More F-16s will depart Hancock as the transition progresses, and wing members are supposed to begin training with MQ-9s in 2010. Nearly 200 of the wing’s airmen and 14 of its F-16s returned home in August from the unit’s eighth and final rotational deployment to Southwest Asia with F-16s.
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.