Lt. Col. Drew English, test director for the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nev., reached his 3,000th flight hour in an A-10 cockpit on March 26 during a force development mission to the Nevada Test and Training Range. “I consider it a privilege that I’ve been able to fly this airplane non-stop for over 15 years,” said English, a career operational test and instructor pilot, who flew his first A-10 sortie in June 1993. Maj. Neal Sheeran, 59th TES project manager for the A-10, said of English, “His complete dedication to making the A-10 the best possible [close air support] platform, both for the A-10 community and the Air Force as a whole, is unmatched.” (Nellis report by Minty Knighton)
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.