As soon as the Iraqi Air Force College returned to its pre-war home at Tikrit Air Base in September, the hard work for USAF advisors to forge the new facility and a new staff into a professional, military academy had only just begun. The advisors, many of them US Air Force Academy graduates, are cooperating with graduates of the former Iraqi Air College to implement the structures for a professional commissioning program, from curriculum straight through to the mundane issues of class scheduling. “We want them to have a quality institution where they’re producing quality officers. Not only pilots, but also support officers,” said USAF Maj. Israel Figueroa, 321st Air Expeditionary Wing college advisor. Iraqi Staff Brig. Gen. Ali Hassan, college commander and dean, said the graduates from this academy “will be the future of the Iraqi air force.” (Tikrit report by SSgt. Sanjay Allen)
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.