Why Does It Take So Long to Get a CCAF Transcript?

Feb. 2, 2024 | By David Roza

Air University formed a task force last month to address the lengthy delays in processing official transcripts and graduations from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF), following months of mounting frustrations for Airmen.

The average processing time for official transcripts used to be 72 hours, an official told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The goal is now 14 days for high-priority requests and 90 days or more for other requests. Priority requests are ones that have implications for promotions, commissioning, developmental special duties, retirements, or separations.

The CCAF website says the current wait time is 150 days for processing transcripts coming into the college and 85 for those being sent to a third party such as an educational institution or employer. By comparison, civilian universities often process transcripts in one to five days.

“Our eventual goal is to be in line with the civilian standard, so that within a 72-hour turn time, you’d be able to get a transcript request,” Col. Damian Schlussel, head of the Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

CCAF offers associate degrees and professional credentialing programs for enlisted Airmen and Guardians. Last June, the college launched the Air University Student Information System (AU SIS), which was supposed to replace a dozen outdated systems and make it easier for students and educators to check academic progress.

But after the switch, the data coming out of AU SIS proved to be inaccurate. Schlussel likened it to patching a software update on an iPhone—except here, the system is connected with legacy systems that are also being updated, so that “every time we push a patch or an update, sometimes the code that underlies the digital backbone needs to be tweaked.”

In the meantime, every request has to be processed by hand, with program managers validating every line of every transcript, from the student’s name to the courses they have taken to their number of credit hours. While the new system is not specific to CCAF, the college has a much higher number of degrees to process than other institutions at Air University. On a typical day, CCAF processes about 500 requests, but with about 400,000 total force enlisted Airmen and Guardians around the world and 22,000 degrees a year, a backlog was inevitable.

“We’re getting more requests than what we can manually stay up to speed with, or ‘hand jam’ to ensure data accuracy,” Schlussel said.

Airmen and Guardians have noticed, with many airing their frustrations on social media. Several described losing out on scholarships because the application deadline passed while waiting on a CCAF transcript. When asked if there have been consequences amidst the rocky transition, Schlussel, who took command at Barnes a week after AU SIS came online, said he and his team are “more concerned with how we can make improvements into the future,” rather than “worrying about what got us here.”

Part of the objective of the new task force, which began Jan. 8 and was announced Jan. 30, is to figure out lessons learned from the experience. The task force is consulting with industry experts on resolving the technical and software issues, Schlussel said in a press release.

“Nothing is off the table,” he told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “We want to make sure that we hold faith with promises made to our Airmen for what CCAF could and should be. Whether it is help from the larger Air Force or contracting solutions, we are looking at all of those options and abilities through Air University.”

Besides fixing AU SIS, the task force has a range of other efforts, such as streamlining the user experience by making Air University online systems easier to understand and reducing the number of clicks needed to navigate them; consolidating registrar offices; working on a regular five-year re-accreditation process; and improving communications with Airmen past and present.

“We want to have better communications about what is happening, what the current problems are, what you can expect, and when things are going to get better,” Schlussel said.

The colonel advised troops affected by the delay to consult their chain of command.

“If an Airman is being adversely affected by what is going on with CCAF, their squadron or group leadership have the ability to reach out directly to us and we can adjust an Airman’s priorities based on that input,” he said. “I really encourage folks to use their chain of command.”

The CCAF transcript issue is one of several technological frustrations Airmen have dealt with in recent years. Others include a buggy ‘myDecs’ platform for approving decorations that was recently replaced, and a malfunctioning ‘myEval’ evaluation platform that was relaunched in May after the branch stopped using it in 2022.

Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Barnes Center, which oversees CCAF and enlisted Professional Military Education, said Air University staff and leadership are working as hard as they can to fix the transcript issue.

“I know it sounds cliché, but this is a top priority here,” coming from “an individual concern for the service member out there,” he said.

Editor’s Note: The original version of this article misidentified some degrees offered by the Community College of the Air Force. It was updated Feb. 5 to correct the error.

US Launches Dozens of Retaliatory Strikes in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen for Deadly Attack

Feb. 2, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The U.S. launched dozens of airstrikes against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and Iranian-aligned groups in Iraq and Syria on Feb. 2, followed by more Feb. 3 against Houthi rebels in Yemen—retaliating after a drone strike killed three American service members in Jordan earlier this week.

The Jan. 28 attack on Tower 22, a small outpost in northeastern Jordan, also wounded dozens of U.S. personnel and marked a major escalation amid growing unrest in the Middle East.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, President Joe Biden said the U.S. would respond, but offered no details. Days later, the counter strikes began hours after Biden attended a dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, Del., as the remains of the three Soldiers killed were returned to the United States.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said the first round of strikes hit 85 targets at seven facilities. In a subsequent briefing with reporters, National Security Council spokesperson John F. Kirby said four of the facilities were in Syria and three were in Iraq.

Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, director of the Joint Staff, said fighter aircraft from U.S. Central Command and B-1 bombers flying from the continental U.S. conducted the strikes, deploying more than 125 precision-guided munitions.

“The facilities that were struck included command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces,” a CENTCOM statement added.

Sims said the strikes appeared to be successful and all U.S. aircraft were safe.

Sims and Kirby said the decision to strike Feb. 2 was driven by the weather and a desire to avoid unnecessary casualties. Sims did say, however, that officials expected there to be militant casualties at the facilities.

In a statement from U.S. Air Forces Central, commander Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said he was “extremely proud of the discipline and professionalism with which our Airmen executed tonight’s mission. These defensive strikes highlight America’s commitment to defending our troops anytime, anywhere.”

Austin hinted at more strikes to come, following up on previous comments suggesting America would not be a passive witness to Iran-sponsored violence.

“This is the start of our response,” Austin said. “The President has directed additional actions to hold the IRGC and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on U.S. and Coalition Forces. These will unfold at times and places of our choosing. We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, but the President and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces.”

U.S. and U.K. aircraft launched a second wave of strikes a day later in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis. All told, 36 targets were hit across 13 locations, including deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars, the Pentagon said.

Since Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7, prompting Israel to declare war on the group in Gaza, Iran-backed militia groups throughout the region have used ballistic missiles and drones to attack U.S. forces scores of times. That includes groups in Iraq and Syria, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, which have launched dozens of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Yet it wasn’t until Jan. 28 that any of the attacks killed American military members. The only prior U.S. death during the present run of violence was a contractor who died from cardiac arrest while sheltering from an attack.

The U.S. had responded to those attacks with waves of targeted strikes, most recently hitting sites on Jan. 11 “associated with the Houthis’ unmanned aerial vehicle, ballistic and cruise missile, and coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities,” the Pentagon said at the time.

The U.S. struck and killed a ranking Iraqi militia figure who was implicated in planning and carrying out attacks on U.S. service personnel on Jan. 4. American forces have also launched attacks in response to direct threats to personnel.

The Feb. 2 and 3 strikes stopped short of attacking Iran itself, a step some Republican lawmakers have been calling for as a means to hold Iran accountable for the actions of its proxy and partner forces. Pentagon officials have said they hold Iran responsible for the Tower 22 attack, because Iran provided the groups weapons and training.

Now Is Not the Time to Go Weak on the F-35

Feb. 2, 2024 | By Douglas A. Birkey

The year 2024 will stand as a transformative year for modernizing the U.S. Air Force’s fighter force. Bottom line: the service needs to reset fast. That is why it was welcome news when Lockheed Martin recently announced the Tech Refresh 3/Block 4 variant of its F-35 are projected to join operational Air Force units by the third quarter of this year.

This much-needed injection of new airframes and their advanced warfighting capabilities comes at a time when the Air Force’s fighter inventory is too small and too old to meet real-world global demands. Yet even as Tech Refresh 3/Block 4 F-35s roll off the line, there are threats to fiscal 2025 airframe orders. Money is tight, leaders are frustrated over program delays, and Congress is facing spending caps. But slowing F-35 buys would be a serious mistake, posing grave risk to long-term Air Force readiness in the face of growing threats.

The Air Force must rapidly rebuild a fighter inventory that has grown old and weary to match the pacing threat—China—and that means buying as many of the Block 4 F-35s as it can at the fastest possible rate.

One need only look at Ukraine to see what happens when a nation lacks a strong fighter force. Friendly forces are vulnerable to enemy aerial attack and the inability to penetrate air defenses renders a nation unable to strike targets at a decisive scale behind an adversary’s lines. The result we see today was predictable: Ground forces dug into fixed positions as in World War I, locked in an incredibly brutal, grinding battle in which both sides suffer high casualties and neither makes progress.

This is a nightmare scenario U.S. forces could suffer as well, if our military cannot demonstrate an airpower advantage against a peer competitor. Adversaries like China will always win a numbers contest in a fight close to their homeland. They own the advantage in sheer size, would be closer to their supply base, and have local air defenses to shield their forces.

Preventing a mass-on-mass war of attrition demands a more strategic approach to combat—the ability to strike anywhere in the battlespace with decisive force, while concurrently protecting against the enemy doing the same. That requires a right-sized fighter aircraft inventory.

We have seen this before. In World War II, the P-51 was the lynchpin of the air war in Europe, enabling our bombers to inflict damage on the continent. Later in Korea, F-86s dogfighting over MiG alley earned iconic status. Deterrence in Europe during the Cold War hinged on U.S. F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s, which gave the U.S. air superiority and a crushing counter to the numerical advantage in ground forces boasted by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. These aircraft and their pilots set the conditions to deter adversaries from challenging the U.S. and defeat them if they did.

Unfortunately, post-Cold War hubris and a myopic focus on ground operations after 9/11 ground down the U.S. fighter force. Rather than maintain the advantage, thousands of aircraft were retired, pilot ranks were decimated, and production of the most capable combat fighter ever built—the F-22—was terminated at less than half its original requirement. All this was done in the name of fiscal responsibility in the face of mounting costs for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Today we know differently. The rapid rise of China, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, perennial instability in the Middle East, and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea make clear that risks taken in the fighter inventory went too far. These risks have allied air forces around the globe—including the U.S. Air Force—scrambling to reset their capacity and capability to counter mounting threats.

The F-35 is the only stealthy U.S. fighter in production with the mission attributes needed to succeed in modern threat environments. That’s why so many nations, from the United Kingdom and to Israel, Italy to Australia, and the Netherlands to Japan are all lining up to buy this airplane. It dominates fighter competitions in almost every international market.

Recent delays in the program are tied to comprehensive upgrades that will radically enhance the aircraft’s performance against top-end threats, especially those posed by China. They amount to one of the largest software upgrades ever tackled by the Department of Defense. These delays have frustrated the Pentagon and Congress, but they should not trigger moves to undercut the program. Mission imperatives must prevail.

Short-term decisions to delay or limit procurement will have long-lasting consequences. The F-35s authorized and paid for by Congress in the fiscal year 2025 budget will not land on Air Force runways until the latter part of the decade. The bureaucratic process of moving money, securing long-lead supplies, and acquiring all the component parts takes time. Cuts made now will hit the force three or more years down the road, by which time the latest upgrade challenges will be long solved. Such actions would deprive the service of combat capacity it badly needs and damage the supplier base. This is self-defeating.

Fighter aircraft underpin the viability of the entire joint force. Ships at sea, forces on land, space and cyber centers, and rear bases are all vulnerable to aerial attack. Fighter aircraft are vital to their defense, and fighters are crucial to U.S. and allied power-projection strategies. Limiting procurement of fighter aircraft today that will be delivered fully combat ready three years from now will degrade overall our military’s effectiveness. This is not a rational choice. It’s a dangerous course. This is why F-35 procurement must be maximized, not cut at a time when the risk of conflict is growing. Let’s not send the wrong signals to America’s adversaries.

Douglas A. Birkey is the executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

3 F-16 Crashes in 9 Months in Korea, But USAF Says Mishaps Are Unrelated

Feb. 1, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Following the third crash of a U.S. Air Force F-16 in South Korea in nine months on Jan. 31, the head of the 7th Air Force released a statement saying the incidents do not appear to be related.

Some USAF flight operations have resumed on the Korean Peninsula after a brief pause, Maj. Gen. David Iverson added.

The latest crash occurred after the F-16 suffered an in-flight emergency over South Korea’s southwestern coast. The pilot ejected and was recovered safely within an hour of the crash and transported to a local medical facility for an assessment. The jet went down in the ocean.

The two previous incidents occurred May 6 and Dec. 11 last year. No personnel have been injured in any of the crashes.

In December, an F-16 from Kunsan Air Base was flying over the Yellow Sea, which borders the west side of the Korean Peninsula, when it suffered an in-flight emergency. The pilot ejected safely. The investigation of that incident is in its “final stages,” Iverson said in his statement.

Last May, a routine daytime training sortie went sour when something went wrong and the pilot ejected near Osan Air Base, about 80 miles north of Kunsan. The fighter made a fiery impact in a local field, which was captured by local cameras. Iverson said the incident has been investigated, but results have not been released. Air Force Accident Investigation Board reports are typically published.

F-16 crash south korea video — South Korean broadcaster SBS News obtained footage purportedly showing the moment a U.S. Air Force F-16 crashed near Osan Air Base. Screenshot

After the latest incident, the 7th Air Force paused flying operations to focus on search and recovery operations. Iverson said “some” flying ops began again Feb. 1, though he did not specify which.

“I also want to acknowledge that this is the third F-16 crash on the peninsula in the last nine months. Thus far, including the preliminary findings from yesterday’s mishap, there are no indications these incidents are related,” he said.

From 2010 to 2021—the latest year for which the Air Force Safety Center has published statistics—33 F-16s have been destroyed in mishaps, or 2.75 per year. Six fighters each were destroyed in 2013 and 2015.

Austin Suggests Retaliation Against Iran for Deadly Strike Could Be a Campaign

Feb. 1, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The Pentagon‘s retaliation for the killing of three U.S. troops in Jordan by Iranian-backed militants may take the form of a campaign that will directly target Iranian capabilities and interests, rather than a one-off raid the likes of which have not deterred Iran and its proxies in recent months, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told reporters Feb. 1.

Austin, making his first appearance at the Pentagon podium since entering the hospital in December to treat prostate cancer, said the militants that have struck at, injured, or killed U.S. troops in the Middle East in recent months could not have done so without Iran’s help, and a mere tit-for-tat attack on its capabilities isn’t sufficient.

“At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability” from Iran and its proxies “than we’ve taken in the past,” Austin said.

“I don’t think the adversaries are of a ‘one and done’ mindset,” he added. “They have a lot of capability. I have a lot more. So we’re going to do what’s necessary to protect our troops and our interests.”

While Iran has said that it provided weapons to Islamist groups in the region, it denies having urged or directed any attacks against U.S. forces. But Austin said, “how much Iran knew or didn’t know really doesn’t matter because Iran sponsors these groups.” Without Iran’s aid, “these kinds of things don’t happen,” he said.

President Joe Biden has said that he has decided how to respond to this latest strike in Jordan but has offered no more details. Austin declined to elaborate.

U.S. forces have been attacked in the Middle East more than 160 times since the latest Israel-Hamas conflict began. Iran-aligned groups have launched airstrikes in Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon, and Iran continues to supply its proxies with weapons such as drones and missiles capable of carrying out these assaults.

While some Iran-backed militants have halted their attacks on U.S. forces in the region since the deadly attack on Tower 22 in Jordan, the Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to attack commercial shipping in the Red Sea region.

Asked whether the U.S. will “escalate” military action in retaliation for the killings, Austin said the U.S. has so far done a good job at the opposite, preventing the Gaza crisis from becoming a regional war.

The U.S.’s goal since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel “was to make sure that we contain this crisis in Gaza and that we prevented things from spreading to a wider conflict,” he said.

The fact that there is not “an all-out conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah” means the crisis has been managed, he argued. The U.S. is in tight contact with the Israeli military to “make sure that that doesn’t blossom into … a war on another front. We don’t see Israel engaged in a conflict with other countries in the region.”

Austin acknowledged that “there’s been a lot of activity in the region,” but argued that “Iranian proxy groups have been attacking our troops even well before Oct. 7.”

“We’re not at war with Iran,” Austin said. “And, yeah, the Houthis continue to do things that are very irresponsible and illegal. So our goal is to make sure that we … continue to take away capability from the Houthis to do what they’ve been doing.”

The U.S. has struck Houthi missile and sensor sites in collaboration with British forces in recent days.

“We’re going to either be serious about freedom of navigation … or we’re not,” Austin said. The world is watching to see “how serious we are about this, and we are serious. And again, our partners and allies are serious about it, as well.”

Austin also called on Iran to stop providing the Houthis with “advanced conventional weapons.”

U.S. officials have said they believe another Iranian-backed group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, is responsible for the attack on Tower 22, a U.S. drone base in Jordan, where the three Army troops were killed.

Also during his briefing, Austin apologized for attempting to keep his recent medical treatment for cancer secret, saying that he had wanted to keep his diagnosis “private.” He acknowledged that President Biden was not informed of Austin’s incapacitation in a timely or appropriate manner.

“We did not handle this right, and I did not handle this right,” Austin admitted. “I should have told the President about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public. And I take full responsibility. I apologize to my teammates and to the American people.”

Austin said flatly he does not plan to resign as a consequence of the incident, but an internal review is underway in the Pentagon which will fully explore what happened, what should have happened, and whether any punishment is warranted.

Garrant Takes Command of SSC, Pledging to Focus on ‘Culture, Speed’

Feb. 1, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant became the second ever leader of Space Systems Command on Feb. 1, pledging to align the Space Force’s main acquisition arm with the visions of Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

“As a command, we will be focused on Gen. Saltzman’s theory of success, Secretary Kendall’s call to reoptimize for great power competition, and continuing the organizational design our leadership envisions,” Garrant said during a ceremony at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

In particular, Garrant, who previously served as Deputy Chief of Space Operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, hinted that SSC may expand its “Integrated Mission Delta” and “System Deltas” prototypes. Two each stood up in the fall of 2023, as part of a push by Saltzman to align the Space Force around missions rather than functions by putting operations and sustainment under one roof and tying them closely together with acquisition officials.

“We’ll continue shaping what SSC is intended to become, with mission capability-focused IMDs and SYDs while continuing our focus on culture, speed, and growing our most important resource—you,” said Garrant.

Garrant also said that as SSC commander, he will work to connect with Guardians across the country and the globe.

“I plan to meet as many of you as I can, traveling to SSC units that are not here in Los Angeles. I want to hear your ideas and share my vision for the command as we move forward,” Garrant said. “My promise is to lead and communicate with you.”

Garrant is succeeding from Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, who has moved up to become Vice Chief of Space Operations.

Reflecting on his two years at SSC, Guetlein stressed the pressing need to address evolving threats posed by China in space, while praising Garrant as an “incredibly strong, battle-tested leader.”

“Over the past year, we observed record setting Chinese military exercises around Taiwan that are not only unprofessional, but increasingly unsafe,” Guetlein said. “It is only a matter of time until they until they see the opportunity to break from international norms and threaten another nation sovereign.”

Guetlein also highlighted Garrant’s diverse experience leading him to his new job—prior to his time on the Space Staff, Garrant was a program executive officer in the Missile Defense Agency and spent time at the Air Armament Center. He also had several stints at SSC’s predecessor organization, the Space and Missile Systems Center.

Saltzman, who officiated the change of command ceremony, praised SSC’s achievements under Glutelin’s leadership, pointing to the Victus Nox mission in September that set a record by launching a satellite into orbit just 27 hours after receiving orders. Calling it an “unprecedented accomplishment,” Saltzman stressed the significance of such missions adapting to the era of great power competition.

“Space dominance starts with space awareness,” Saltzman said. “And that’s why your recent successes with the surveillance, reconnaissance, and tracking program have been so important.”

Moving forward, Garrant pledged, “we have a lot to do, so, get ready.”

INDOPACOM Nominee Says Aerial Refueling and Logistics Need Attention

Feb. 1, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr., nominated to lead U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said logistics—including its aerial refueling—will be top priorities for him if he is confirmed.

Currently commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Paparo testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 1. He is in line to succeed Adm. John C. Aquilino, and once confirmed, would preside over the vast territory through the mid-2020s.

Lawmakers pressed Paparo for his views on China’s aggressive actions in the region and the potential that Chinese leader Xi Jinping could decide to invade the island of Taiwan in the coming years.

“I can’t directly express Xi Jinping’s attitude, but do see the actions of the People’s Liberation Army,” Paparo said. “I see an undaunted effort to extend its aggression as a revanchist, revisionist, and expansionist state, to reset the borders based on the logic of their military power. And I think we are in a global environment that is increasingly disordered, increasingly chaotic.”

That suggests the U.S. must shift to a “more forward, more distributed posture” in the region, Paparo said, and INDOPACOM must rethink how it supports that posture.

“Our logistics enterprise is built on the principles of efficiency over a time when we were focused on regional conflicts,” Paparo said. “Now under the contestation that we see from actors, we’ve got to build a logistics enterprise that’s based on the principles of effectiveness under fire.”

A naval aviator who spent time flying the F-15C with the Air Force on exchange duty, Paparo was asked specifically about aerial refueling and whether he had confidence in the KC-46 Pegasus tanker, which has been troubled by issues with its Remote Vision System and boom.

“I am concerned about the joint force’s ability to refuel a dynamic force operating in the air,” Paparo said. In separate written testimony, Paparo said fuel storage should be emphasized at different locations throughout the theater, and the joint force should experiment with “long-range, uncrewed, multi-domain platforms, both for operational missions and logistics transportation.”

Paparo continued to hammer home his emphasis on logistics later in the hearing when he said of U.S. Transportation Command that, “In deterrence, in competition, in crisis and conflict, it is very likely the most important COCOM-to-COCOM relationship we have.” The two are engaged in “habitual” planning to prepare for possible contingencies, he added.

Air Mobility Command and U.S. Transportation Command have been ramping up their efforts in the Indo-Pacific as of late, highlighted by AMC shifting its premier exercise, Mobility Guardian, to focus specifically on the Pacific in the summer of 2023.

A U.S. C-17 Globemaster approaches the boom of a 168th Wing KC-135 Stratotanker during a Mobility Guardian exercise July 16, 2023. Courtesy photo

All told, 70 aircraft and 3,000 personnel participated in operations in Hawaii, Guam, Australia, and Japan. Coming out of that exercise, AMC boss Gen. Mike Minihan said his main takeaways were the need to improve command relationships to prevent wasteful efforts, invest in beyond-line-of-sight communications, and work on ‘exploding into theater,’ defined by how quickly mobility Airmen can serve the joint force in an unfamiliar environment.

TRANSCOM commander Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost told reporters in December that the exercise also highlighted “the importance of fuel throughout the theater and how do we support distributed operations around the globe; and the concepts of maneuver for our services … this ability to be able to disperse and then collect up again, so disaggregate to survive, aggregate to create an effect, and how we could do that more effectively across the vast region of the Indo-Pacific.”

Paparo appears to be on a glide path to confirmation to lead INDOPACOM. No lawmakers expressed opposition to his pick, and the backlog of general and flag officer nominees that piled up throughout 2023 has been mostly cleared. Dating back to its founding in 1947, every commander of INDOPACOM and its predecessor, U.S. Pacific Command, has been a Navy officer. No Air Force, Army, or Marine Corps officer has ever headed the command.

‘Character Above All’: Top-Performing Space Force MTI Wins Polaris Award

Feb. 1, 2024 | By Patrick Reardon

The Space Force’s Polaris Awards annually recognize Guardians who best represent the Guardian Spirit. There are four individual award categories based on each of the core Guardian values—Character, Connection, Commitment and Courage—and a Team Excellence category that combines all four values. Air & Space Forces Magazine is highlighting each of this year’s winners before they receive their awards on stage at the 2024 AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo.

The U.S. Space Force selected Tech. Sgt. Isabel F. Childress of the 1st Delta Operations Squadron, Detachment 1, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, as the winner of the Polaris Award for Character for “personifying integrity, honesty, candor, fairness, accountability, and transparency” in 2023.

Childress graduated from Military Training Instructor School at the top of her class in 2023, becoming the first-ever Guardian to win all three MTIS awards: Excellence in Instruction, the Commandant’s Award, and the Distinguished Graduate Award.

“[Becoming an MTI] is something I’ve been itching at my whole career to do,” Childress said. “I wanted to help change the lives of people who are willing to raise their right hand and join our force.”

“The training was definitely rigorous,” she added. “I actually PCS’ed with a three-month-old and so, as a brand-new mom … I would go to school, come home, spend some time with my husband and daughter, and stay up till almost midnight practicing the lessons that I would be teaching, [and] studying with my classmates in order for us all get to the finish line.”

During her MTI training, Childress was told MTIs needed to cross-reference 15 separate lesson plans during PT evaluations in Basic Military Training. She said her first reaction to this was, “Why can’t it all just be one document?”

In a single weekend, Childress consolidated all 15 lesson plans into a single, simplified fitness guide. She also designed a brand-new website for the schoolhouse that now houses all the information for MTIs to easily access and reference.

“Initially, I just made the document to help us with PT [evaluations], and my classmates were like, ‘Absolutely, let’s use this,’” she said. “And then I started adding more to it based on things I could consolidate, and based on some things that my classmates were starting to develop. And that’s something we just gave back to the MTI schoolhouse.”

Childress’ website is now being used across the entire instructor corps. Her initiative led to fewer fitness failures across all of basic training, saving the Department of the Air Force more than $46 million in retraining costs.

Taking the initiative to identify problems and then solve them is a quality that Childress tries to instill in her Guardians every day in training: “Be the change that we need to see. And if something isn’t working, then fix it,” she said.

Her words echo the Space Force handbook’s entry on character, the Guardian value she’s being decorated for: “We must put into context what matters today, what matters in the future, what matters for the mission, the team, and each of us individually,” the handbook says. “Character allows us to navigate these dilemmas in real time and character demands consistently reevaluating them as the environment changes.”

Childress said her character was directly shaped by her parents’ examples.

“When I think of character, I think of my parents,” she said. “Their hard work truly [inspired] the hard work that hopefully I’m giving back to the service and to my family. … The day I left for BMT, my dad told me not to be strong, but to be resilient. Because every day is going to be hard and every day is going to be a different challenge. But, if I’m able to come back from that, then he knows I’m gonna be able to make him proud, because he raised a good and resilient person.”

Meet the other 2023 Polaris Award winners below:

Polaris Award for Character: Maj. Jessica M. Pratt

Airmen Were Among the Injured in Jordan Attack

Jan. 31, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

A “small number” of Airmen were injured in the Jan. 28 drone attack on the military’s remote Tower II base in Jordan, among them at least one Air National Guardsman, Air Force and National Guard officials confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine on Jan. 31.

National Security Council spokesperson John F. Kirby said the U.S. attributes the attack to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of organizations backed by Iran.

The attack killed three Soldiers and wounded more than 40 service members at the small outpost in northeastern Jordan, close to the border with Syria. Both Air Force and Army personnel are based there.

The National Guard announced it had confirmed at least 41 Guardsmen, mostly Soldiers, were injured in the attack. A spokesperson said that total includes one Airman, who is “in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries.”

An Air Force spokesperson confirmed that several Airmen were injured but did not immediately clarify how many Airmen were hurt or their current condition.

Tower 22 is located near Al Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, where the U.S. works with local partners to combat the Islamic State group. Al Tanf has drawn frequent attacks in recent months, but the Jan. 28 attack on Tower 22 was the first known attack on U.S. forces in Jordan. Tower 22 provides logistics and support for Al Tanf.

“There are approximately 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel deployed to the base, conducting a number of key support functions, including support to the coalition for the lasting defeat of ISIS,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Jan. 29 that the attack drone struck living quarters on the base early in the morning, “so people were actually in their beds when the drone impacted.”

The number of wounded from the attack was first reported as 25, but has since grown to more than 40. Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said Jan. 30 that eight troops were transported out of Jordan for higher level medical attention.

President Joe Biden has pledged to respond to the attack.

This is a developing story and will be updated.