Airmen of the 772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron have delivered more than 8.5 million pounds of supplies via airdrops to troops at forward operating bases in Afghanistan with extremely high levels of delivery accuracy over the past 16 months. The C-130J unit has been operating out of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, since its activation in March 2009. Overall, it has moved more than 50 million pounds of cargo around the US Central Command region in nearly 9,000 sorties during that span, when factoring its airland missions. The unit also flies aeromedical evacuation missions and has made humanitarian airdrops of food and supplies to Afghan communities. To date, the 41st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock AFB, Ark., has provided all airmen and aircraft that have constituted the expeditionary unit. (Kandahar report by TSgt. Renni Thornton)
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.