MSgt. Terence Jackson, a KC-10 flight engineer with the 305th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire AFB, N.J., has surpassed more than 10,000 flight hours during his deployment to the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron covering Southwest Asia operations. The Grand Rapids, Mich. native passed the 10K mark on Jan. 23, according to a Jan. 26 photo release. < Maj. Jon Williams, an air battle manager on E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control aircraft at Tinker AFB, Okla., surpassed 8,760 flight hours—a year’s worth—during a mission over Southwest Asia on Jan. 15. Deployed to the 963rd Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron, Williams has flown 1,102 AWACS sorties over his 28-year career and has more flying hours than any other active duty E-3 crew member, according to a Jan. 17 release (by SrA. Brian Ellis).
Fixing the Air Force’s chronic combat pilot shortage will require more aircraft in the fleet, more flying hours to squadron operations, and retaining more pilots within Reserve components, according to a new paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.