Why Air Force Tanker Crews Are Training To Pump Their Own Gas

Dec. 4, 2023 | By David Roza

The Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Air Refueling Group recently put together what may be a first of its kind in the Air Force: a training program that teaches KC-135 tanker crews how to perform specialized fueling operations (SFO): ground-based procedures that could help gas up military aircraft in a conflict.

There are a few different kinds of SFO. One is hot refueling, where an aircrew lands, takes on gas from a fuel truck, and leaves the jet’s engines running so it can get back to the sky sooner. Hot refueling is helpful at small airfields that do not have permanent fuel storage.

Another form of SFO is wet wing defueling, where a jet lands, keeps the engines running, and offloads some of its fuel to a fuel truck so that the truck can gas other aircraft arriving in the future.

These techniques help with the Air Force’s concept of Agile Combat Employment (ACE), where Airmen and aircraft disperse and operate from small airfields in the hope that the movement will complicate an enemy’s targeting process.

But small facilities mean there are not as many ground crew Airmen to conduct SFO and not as much infrastructure to do it with. To prepare, Airmen across the service are learning skills outside their usual job specialty, and the new program in Michigan marks the latest example of aircrews joining in the challenge.

air guard tanker — Members of the Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Wing practice removing fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft into an R-11 refueling vehicle while three of four engines remain running, in a process referred to as, “wet wing defuel,” during Exercise Northern Strike 23, at MBS International Airport, Freeland, Michigan, Aug. 9, 2023. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Chelsea E. FitzPatrick

“The combat advantage of using aircrew to conduct SFO is in making austere, lesser-manned contingency locations more accessible to turning the aircraft,” Lt. Col. Michael Urban, an evaluator pilot with the 127th Air Refueling Group, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The challenge was that there did not appear to be a documented process for how KC-135 aircrews should conduct SFO under combat conditions. The Michigan team turned to Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), which has a history of performing SFO in austere conditions, for help creating a concept of operations (CONOPS).

“We married-up the KC-135 draft CONOPS we have with [AFSOC’s] CONOPS and the outcome is very ‘aircrew-centric,'” Chief Master Sgt. Erik Wolford, senior enlisted leader of the 191st Maintenance Operations Flight, said in a recent press release. “We focused very heavily on having air crew perform the task in its entirety.”

Other aircraft in the service have SFO training programs, but this could be the first for Stratotanker aircrews.

“While we do not have perfect knowledge on what the rest of the force is accomplishing, we believe we are the first KC-135 unit to formally train this,” Urban said.

A KC-135 crew typically consists of a pilot, a copilot, and a boom operator who works the refueling boom on the jet’s belly. Urban explained that “the whole crew needs to work as a team to successfully accomplish SFO,” but the pilots’ primary duty station during the procedure is in the cockpit. The procedure also still requires some ground crew members to operate the fuel truck, for example.

SFO training for aircrew could take anywhere from two days to more than a month, depending on the procedure being taught, Urban added. This summer, the 127th ARG certified seven different aircrews from other Guard and Reserve units who came to Michigan for Exercise Northern Strike 23-2, a large-scale training exercise. The group hopes to have most of its aircrews certified in SFO, and Urban said there has been a considerable amount of interest from other units.

Offloading gas to the ground via air tanker is not a substitute for shipping bulk quantities of fuel via maritime tankers, of which experts say the U.S. needs more to sustain through a longer conflict. Still, delivering gas via jets could play an important role, especially in the early stages of a conflict. In the meantime, the training will likely continue to improve, Maj. Mark Hanna, of the 217th Air Component Operations Squadron, said in the release.

“The biggest challenge is that [SFO] is something we haven’t done before so it’s constantly evolving,” he said. “We tackle something that hasn’t really been done before and we hone it.”

Air Force Missile Cancer Study Plans to Expand Testing to Vandenberg

Dec. 4, 2023 | By Chris Gordon and Greg Hadley

The Air Force is broadening the scope of its study on environmental cancers at its intercontinental ballistic missile bases to include more facilities, service officials said—Vandenberg Space Force Base, a site used to test launch America’s ICBMs, will now be scrutinized.

Previously, the command focused on operational Minuteman III bases and their personnel. The Air Force has been leading a sweeping Missile Community Cancer Study to address long-held concerns of heath hazards in and around America’s missile silos, which two older studies had discounted.

“We took this to heart immediately,” Col. Tory Woodard, the commander of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) told reporters Dec. 1. “We are fully dedicated to looking into this to maintain the safety of our operations and our people.”

The command has also completed a cleanup and reopened one of the facilities at Malmstrom Air Force Base where polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found at levels above the acceptable threshold set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has deemed PCBs “probable human carcinogens” that “have been demonstrated to cause a variety of adverse health effects.”

USAFSAM and a team of defense medical officials have finished collecting a second round of environmental test samples looking for hazardous chemicals at the three operational ICBM bases, the officials added.

The study team provided reporters with a wide-ranging update on the status of Global Strike Command’s Missile Community Cancer Study, an in-depth review to determine whether missileers and other ICBM support personnel are at elevated risk for cancer—a longtime concern shared by many current and former Airmen that gained new traction earlier this year when a presentation detailing cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, at Malmstrom appeared online.

In August, AFGSC announced the results of its first round of environmental sampling at the three missile bases, finding elevated amounts of PCBs at two facilities at Malmstrom and one at Minot Air Force Base, N.D. All told, some 2,000 air, swipe, soil, and other samples were taken at the three bases. Trace amounts below the EPA standard were also found at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.

Air Force Global Strike Command ordered cleanups for all three bases and closed the three facilities that had elevated levels of PCBs.

The cleanup process was developed by the EPA, Air Force medical professionals, and Minuteman III program engineers, said Col. Gregory Coleman, surgeon general for AFGSC.

“That process included going out and scrubbing and removing the PCBs and then treating them, wiping them down with other chemicals, and then taking all of those back to our civil engineering squadron and their hazmat program for disposal,” added Col. Dan Voorhies of the 20th Air Force, which oversees the ICBM fleet. The facilities were then retested.

A second round of testing took place in October and November, concluding just before Thanksgiving, said Woodard. Results will be released in January or February.

Around the same time, the study’s leaders hope to expand their testing to Vandenberg, which hosts the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, and regularly conducts Minuteman III test launches to “validate and verify the safety, security, effectiveness, and readiness” of the missile.

“We are currently building a sampling strategy and plan to do sampling at Vandenberg,” said Col. Joanna Rentes, chair of the occupational and environmental health department at USAFSAM. “Once that gets approved, we expect to execute early 2024.”

“On the Vandenberg side, we want to make sure that we are giving it the same … look that we’re giving at the other installations,” added Coleman.

A third round of environmental sampling at the three operational missile bases will take place in the spring—soil sampling is difficult when many of the northern bases are covered in snow, Woodard noted.

The study team has been looking at issues such as contaminated drinking water, which many Airmen have been suspicious of for years, and hazardous agricultural chemicals used on privately owned land around missile facilities. The process is monthslong because the team will account for seasonal variations.

The other part of the study is an epidemiological review of current and former missileers, comparing their rates of cancer against other Airmen and the general public, similar to other recent studies examining whether aircrew and other flightline personnel experience higher cancer rates. Like those studies, the review is looking at a broad range of cancers, 14 in total, Woodard said.

“The study continues and we are continuing to evaluate the data as it comes in,” Woodard said. “We hope to have some initial results in the near future.” A slideshow shown as part of an AFGSC town hall shared with reporters projects the epidemiological review to be complete by June 2024.

Throughout the process, the Air Force has stressed that whatever happened in the past, the current study will attempt to turn over as many stones as possible.

“It is difficult to speak about past studies,” Woodard said. “The studies that were done in 2001 and 2005, the DOD did not have a large electronic medical record.”

Since then, service medical officials say data has become easier to access, AFGSC has enabled increased physical access to classified facilities, and testing technology has improved.

“We’re in a much better position now to do this study,” Woodard said. “We immediately jumped on this. The safety and health of our Airmen is paramount and informing the rest of our previously served Airmen using this data is also one of our major efforts and concerns.”

Osprey Crash Wreckage, Remains of 5 Airmen Located

Dec. 4, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

After a nearly weeklong search, U.S. and Japanese search teams have located the bulk of the wreckage of the U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey that crashed off the coast of southern Japan, along with the remains of most of its crew members.

Search and rescue teams had been looking for the aircraft since it crashed Nov. 29. The remains of five crew members were found Dec. 4, Air Force Special Operations Command said in a statement—a previous crew member’s remains were announced as recovered Dec. 2.

Eight Airmen were aboard the Osprey when it went down.

“The combined Japanese and United States teams working diligently in the search for the CV-22 aircraft that crashed near Yakushima, Japan, on Nov. 29, 2023, had a breakthrough when their surface ships and dive teams were able to locate remains along with the main fuselage of the aircraft wreckage,” AFSOC said in a statement.

The remains of two of five crew members found on Dec. 4 have been recovered, AFSOC added. They have have yet to be identified, according to the U.S. military. Search and recovery efforts are continuing.

“There is an ongoing combined effort to recover the remaining crew members from the wreckage,” AFSOC said in the statement.

The U.S. previously confirmed the death and identity of one Airman, Staff Sgt. Jacob “Jake” M. Galliher, 24, who was recovered shortly after the mishap.

“The coalition of military, coast guard, law enforcement, mariners, and local volunteers remain steadfast in locating and bringing the U.S. service members back to their units and their families,” AFSOC stated.

“It’s some tough times we have,” Air Force Chief of Staff. Gen. David W. Allvin said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif., on Dec. 2. “We are blessed in that we have Americans who are willing to come into our formation and take on those types of activities. We’re very proud of them—all of them—and we’re very saddened by that situation.”

The aircraft was assigned to 353rd Special Operations Wing and based at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It went down during what Air Force and Pentagon officials have called a “routine training mission.” The unit operating the CV-22 involved in the mishap is not currently conducting flight operations, the Pentagon said Dec. 1.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft, which allows it to take off and land like a helicopter, then move its rotors and fly like an airplane. Air Force Special Operations Command operates a fleet of around 50 Ospreys, and the aircraft is also flown by the Marines and Navy.

The Osprey has had several fatal accidents recently. In August, three Marines were killed when their Osprey crashed in Australia. In 2022, nine Marines were killed in two separate crashes.

AFSOC temporarily grounded the Osprey in 2022 after two “hard clutch engagements,” in which the clutch slips and reengages. Air Force and other services have not said whether they will ground the fleet after the latest mishap, which is under investigation.

Along with Japanese personnel, Pacific Air Forces; United States Pacific Fleet; United States Marine Corps Forces, Pacific; Special Operations Command Pacific; 353rd Special Operations Wing, Kadena Air Base, Japan; 18th Wing, Kadena Air Base, Japan; and the 1st Special Forces Group have been involved in the search efforts, according to the Pentagon. The U.S. military is leading the search.

Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum Dec 2., Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall thanked Japanese personnel for their efforts in the search and American service members.

“Going into the holiday season, remember our men and women in uniform who are out there putting their lives on the line,” Kendall said.

US Drone Thwarts Militia Attack on American Troops in Iraq

Dec. 3, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. conducted a drone strike in Iraq on Dec. 3, as the American troops there continue to be targeted by Iranian-backed militants, U.S. officials said.

The strike took place near Kirkuk as the militants were preparing to attack U.S. troops in northern Iraq, a U.S. official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

A half-dozen airstrikes have been carried out by the U.S. against Iranian-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria in roughly five weeks, but this appears to be first one known to have been carried out by a drone. Images posted on social media of the aftermath show the remnants of a variant of a Hellfire missile amid bodies of dead fighters. Five militants were killed and the drone they were preparing to launch at U.S. forces was destroyed, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said. The U.S. notified Iraqi security forces of the strike and they responded and confirmed the deaths, she added.

American forces in Iraq and Syria have come under attack by militia groups at least 76 times since Oct. 17, a U.S. military official said.

At first, the U.S. limited its strikes to Iran-backed militias in Syria, even when some of the militia attacks occurred in Iraq, to avoid roiling politics in Baghdad. But now the U.S. appears to be more willing to take action in Iraq to protect its roughly 2,500 troops in the country.

The militants who were targeted in the drone attack belonged to Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi group founded by the militant leader Akram al-Kabbi, said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. That group has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

The Biden administration has repeatedly pressed Iraqi leaders to have their forces stop the militia attacks. But the Iraqi government’s seeming inability to do so has prompted the U.S. to take action, to the consternation of the authorities in Baghdad.

“These defensive strikes on attack cells provide very close connection between crime and punishment which makes it very easy for the Biden administration to claim it is self defense,” Knights said.

In their effort to encourage the Iraqis to act, President Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have called Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

“The secretary called on the Iraqi government to fulfill its commitments to protect all installations hosting U.S. personnel at its invitation and to pursue those responsible for attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq,” the State Department said in a readout of Blinken’s Dec. 1 call with Sudani.

The Iraq attack was not the only military action the U.S. took Dec. 3. The U.S. military also responded when Houthi rebels in Yemen launched missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea.

The USS Carney guided-missile destroyer shot down multiple drones and missiles in the span of a few hours as it attempted to come to the aid of the several commercial vessels in distress, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

“As we are working to stabilize the region, Iran is raising tensions,” Austin said during a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif. on Dec. 2. “And after attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, our forces repeatedly struck facilities in Iraq and eastern Syria used by Iran’s IRGC and by militias affiliated with Iran. We will not tolerate attacks on American personnel. And so these attacks must stop. And until they do, we will do what we need to do to protect our troops—and to impose costs on those who attack them.”

Air Force Identifies 1 Airman Killed in Japan Osprey Crash, 7 Still Missing

Dec. 3, 2023 | By Chris Gordon and Greg Hadley

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Dec. 1 and Dec. 3 with additional details.

Air Force Special Operations Command has recovered and identified the remains of one Airman from the U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey that crashed off the coast of southern Japan last week, while seven others remain missing as U.S. and Japanese officials continue their search.

Staff Sgt. Jacob “Jake” M. Galliher, 24, was a native of Pittsfield, Mass., according to AFSOC. He enlisted in the Air Force in 2017 and served as a Direct Support Operator—DSO—working as an airborne linguist specializing in Mandarin. A member of the 43rd Intelligence Squadron, Detachment 1, Operating Location—Alpha, Galliher earned the Air Force Achievement Medal, Air and Space Commendation Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, and Air Force Meritorious Unit Award in his career.

The seven other members of the CV-22 crew remain unidentified and are in DUSTWUN status—“duty status-whereabouts unknown.”

“We’re very proud of them—all of them—and we’re very saddened by that situation,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said Dec. 2 at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

AFSOC confirmed the death of one Airman on Dec. 1 and identified Galliher on Dec. 3.

The Pentagon and the Japanese Ministry of Defense have both said the ocean search continues.

“Emergency personnel remain on scene conducting search and rescue operations,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Nov. 30.

The aircraft was assigned to 353rd Special Operations Wing and based at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It went down during what Air Force and Pentagon officials have called a “routine training mission” near Yakushima, Japan. The unit operating the CV-22 involved in the mishap is not currently conducting flight operations, Singh added in Dec. 1 statement.

In remarks before the fatality was confirmed, Singh added that “our efforts are on, of course, thinking of these families who are missing their loved ones right now.”

In a statement on Nov. 29, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said the aircraft crashed at roughly 2:50 p.m. local time, and Japanese military and coast guard dispatched aircraft and ships to conduct a search and rescue operation. Singh said the U.S. military is now leading the effort with Japanese assistance.

“The U.S. military, alongside the Japan Coast Guard, Japanese Self-Defense Forces, local law enforcement, and Japanese civilian volunteers, is continuing search and rescue operations for the CV-22 crew,” AFSOC said in its Dec. 1 statement. “Search and rescue operations consist of a combination of air, surface, and subsurface search of water and coastline in the vicinity of Yakushima, Japan, in order to locate the crewmembers.”

Pacific Air Forces; United States Pacific Fleet; United States Marine Corps Forces, Pacific; Special Operations Command Pacific; 353rd Special Operations Wing, Kadena Air Base, Japan; 18th Wing, Kadena Air Base, Japan; and the 1st Special Forces Group are involved in the search efforts, the U.S. military said.

“Our sincere gratitude to all the units and Japanese partners involved in helping us locate our Airmen,” AFSOC said in a statement.

The Osprey, which is also used by the Marine Corps and Navy, is a tilt-rotor aircraft, which allows it to take off and land like a helicopter, then move its rotors and fly like an airplane. Air Force Special Operations Command operates a fleet of around 50 Ospreys.

Across the military, there has been no decision to ground the aircraft, Singh said Nov. 30, even as the Japanese reportedly decided to ground their fleet of Ospreys.

The next day, Singh noted in a statement that all U.S. V-22 Ospreys in Japan “operate only after undergoing thorough maintenance and safety checks. We have already started sharing information about the accident with our Japanese partners, and have pledged to continue to do so in a timely and transparent manner. “

The Osprey has developed a poor safety reputation among the public. In August, three Marines were killed when their Osprey crashed in Australia. In 2022, two separate crashes in San Diego and Norway resulted in the deaths of nine Marines. An Air Force has had one previous fatal mishap involving a CV-22, which occurred in 2010.

AFSOC temporarily grounded the Osprey in 2022 after two “hard clutch engagements,” in which the clutch slips and reengages. However, the cause of the latest incident is unknown, according to military officials.

For now, military officials said the focus remains on finding the Airmen and wreckage or the Osprey.

“There is an investigation that is currently determining and looking into what exactly happened with this aircraft and the mishap,” Singh said. “Should that investigation yield in results that require the department to change anything about the Osprey or to take additional steps, we will certainly do that.”

“We are taking what happened, the mishap of one of our aircraft, extremely seriously,” she added. “There’s a true commitment to safety when it comes to any of our Airmen operating any aircraft.”

Air Force Announces Not One, But Two Bonus Programs to Retain Aviators in 2024

Dec. 1, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is renaming its traditional aviation bonus program in 2024 and continuing a new, experimental second program, ordered by Congress, aimed at getting aviators to extend their commitment sooner and for longer.

While the programs can’t be doubled-up, aviators may be able to move from one to the other, depending on their circumstances and the needs of the Air Force.

The newer program, introduced toward the end of fiscal 2023 and continuing into 2024, “allows members to commit to a retention bonus early, receive money early, with lump-sum payment for longer contracts” of five years or more, an Air Force spokesperson said.

The current Aviation Bonus program runs until Dec. 31, 2023, when its name will change to the Experienced Aviation Retention Incentive (EARI). Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard pilots can still apply for it until then; Active Duty pilots can apply before Aug. 1, 2024.

The EARI offers rated officers with experience in certain critical weapon systems—the Air Force won’t identify which ones—“both monetary and non-monetary incentives to extend their service commitment” if that service commitment expires in fiscal 2024, a spokesperson said. The cash options run from $15,000 per year to $50,000 per year for contracts ranging from three to 12 years of additional service. The amounts vary depending on how shorthanded certain weapon systems are.

Other incentives that may come into play include “assignment of choice, assignment declination, or remain in place,” according to an Air Force press release. In surveys, aviators have said having some choice in assignment would help them extend their time in uniform.

The second program was created in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. It is a “demonstration” program that will run five years to see if it helps retain pilots in critical weapon systems. Called the Rated Officer Retention Demonstration Bonus (RORDB), it also requires applications by Aug. 1, 2024, but “the program eligibility window will close early if the budgetary maximum number of contracts are met before,” the Air Force said.

The RORDB is only open to pilots of crewed aircraft—not remotely-piloted aircraft operators. It’s available to those “with no more than three years, but no less than one year remaining” on the Active-duty service commitment they made after completing Undergraduate Flying Training. In other words, the bonus will be available to those whose service commitments expire in fiscal 2025 or 2026.

The program incentivizes extending one’s commitment by offering more money for deciding earlier, with the bonus declining as an aviator draws closer to their commitment expiring. It also offers non-monetary incentives.

An Air Force spokesperson offered a hypothetical case to explain how the demo program bonus will work.

“If I am a bomber pilot and my original [Active Duty Service Commitment] expires in FY’26, I can sign a 10-year contract for $50,000 per year under the Demo program,” she said. “If I wait until FY’26, when I would be eligible for the EARI program, the same 10-year commitment would (only) be worth $35,000 per year. Additionally, if I enter into a contract under the Demo program, I will also have an assignment of preference option.”

The spokesperson noted that the bonuses offered will be unique to each aviator’s circumstances—their weapon systems, years of commitment remaining, etc.—and urged that Airmen explore eligibility requirements and application instructions on the myFSS website.

While the RORDB is only available for “select” Regular Air Force pilots, the EARI is open to Regular Air Force, Guard and Reserve rated officers, the service said.

Information about EARI for the Guard and Reserve will be announced later, USAF said.

Bonus programs are intended to “deliberately shape and retain experienced rated officers to meet Air Force retention, training and mission readiness requirements to maintain the lethality of the force,” the service said.

“Aviation-related skillsets, formed through the crucible of combat and daily execution of high-intensity operations, is the foundation necessary to continue to effectively deliver warfighting capability to the Joint Force and the American people,” said Mag. Gen. Adrian Spain, director of training and readiness for the deputy chief of staff for operations.

“Retaining these professional aviators’ experience and expertise within the Total Force is imperative in order to outpace future challenges that may emerge throughout the spectrum of conflict,” he said.

The EARI targets specific rated officer communities “to provide accurate personnel forecasts for retaining experienced rated officers to execute the Air Force’s warfighting mission,” the service said.

C-130s to Bring Holiday Cheer and 84,000 Pounds of Supplies to Pacific Islands

Dec. 1, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Over 200 bundles containing food, toys, and supplies are set to drop from C-130Js flying across the western Pacific Ocean this weekend.

The U.S. Air Force and its allies have gathered over 84,000 pounds of these supplies for ‘Operation Christmas Drop,’ scheduled to start Dec. 3 and continue through Dec. 13, a spokesperson at Yokota Air Base told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Department of Defense’s longest standing humanitarian airlift effort is marking its 72nd iteration this year.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Zach Overbey, 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron Operation Christmas Drop 2023 (OCD 23) mission commander, greets Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) Capt. Changseok Ryoo at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Nov. 28, 2023, in support of OCD 23. This year marks the third occurance of ROKAF participation in OCD. U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe

The bundles contain non-perishable food, clothes, medical supplies, school books, fishing gears, and holiday toys for the children. This year, these goods are projected to reach more than 20,000 residents across 57 islands across the Federated state of Micronesia and Palau, the spokesperson said. The two nations include hundreds of islands and rely heavily on fishing for both commercial and subsistence needs.

This cherished tradition embodies cooperation and trust across the entire Indo-Pacific region, noted Col. Andrew Roddan, 374th Airlift Wing commander.

“Our Pacific Air Forces Airmen continue to build critical interoperability with our Allies and partners,” Roddan said in a statement.

Collected and packaged, the donated supplies are ready for transport as the Super Hercules completes pre-flight inspections and departs for Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, where the distribution will kick off.

Members of the 374th Logistics Readiness Squadron combat mobility flight (CMF), 44th Aerial Port Squadron, and volunteers from Andersen Air Force Base prepare for the 72nd annual Operation Christmas Drop “Bundle Build” at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Nov. 28, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe

Spearheaded by the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base in Japan, this Pacific Air Forces mission involves Airmen from the 36th Wing at Andersen Air Force Base, the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, and from partner nations. Allies are also involved, including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and—for the first time—the Royal Canadian Air Force, as confirmed by a spokesperson from PACAF.

Canada’s participation is yet another sign of its expand presence in the Indo-Pacific region. At the G7 summit held in Japan in May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighted the country’s Indo-Pacific strategy and advocated for an increased Canadian involvement for the region’s defense and security. PACAF’s Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium in Hawaii last month also saw chiefs of the Royal Canadian Air Force participating in key regional discussions.

Maj. Zach Overbey, 36th Airlift Squadron C-130J Super Hercules pilot and OCD23 mission commander noted that the mission highlights the shared values and partnership between the allies.

“It is an absolute honor to come together with our Allies and partners to spread a little holiday joy and make a positive impact in the region,” said Overbey.

Beyond Christmas cheer, the tradition also fosters interoperability and communication, laying the groundwork for future humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts.

“This continues to be an important annual tradition meant to deliver valuable humanitarian assistance,” Capt. Emma C. Quirk of the 374th Airlift Wing told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a statement. “It is one of many events where U.S. and partner nation forces operate side by side, with this event emblematic of our mutual respect and cooperation with our friends and neighbors.”

The tradition started in 1952, when a B-29 Superfortress crew spotted Kapingamarangi islanders waving at the aircraft and dropped a parachuted supply package, inspired by the spirit of Christmas—giving the operation its name. The annual event is carried out through the Low-Cost, Low-Altitude (LCLA) airdrop, an economical way of distributing goods by utilizing repurposed parachutes.

To Counter Laser Weapons, Air Force Creates Better Eye Protection

Dec. 1, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Most drivers know the feeling: You’re on the road at night, when a car driving in the opposite direction comes around a bend and hits you with the high beam headlights. Suddenly, the contours of the road and practically everything else can be hard to make out.

For Air Force pilots, the threat can be even greater. Whether it’s civilians pointing commercial laser pointers in the sky or adversaries training military-grade laser weapons on aircraft cockpits, USAF aviators face eye damage and potentially fatal distraction.

“Even lasers that you can buy off the shelf at a Party Supply Store can cause serious damage, especially if there’s a situation where a pilot comes in to land and he’s distracted—even if it’s not damaging to the eyeball,” said 2nd Lt. Nicholas Zjad, of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s human systems division. “The amount of distraction that even a cheap red laser could create could have very serious consequences.”

To counter these threats, Zjad and other members of the Aircrew Laser Eye Protection Program are rolling out “Block 3” of the Air Force’s protective eyewear.

Block 3 includes eight new devices, from spectacles that protect against lasers and/or ballistic threats om both day and night, to visors and night vision goggles. All told, program leaders estimate USAF will acquire some 42,000 pieces of equipment delivered throughout the rest of the 2020s. Established as a program of record in 2017, Block 3 has already started to deliver daytime sunglasses and night vision goggles with laser eye protection, Zjad said.

Instances of “lazing”—laser pointers being shined at aircraft pilots—have surged in recent years, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. In 2022 alone, there were 9,500 incidents nationwide.

“These are not harmless pranks. There’s a risk of causing permanent visual impairment,” said an OSI official in an October release. “From the public’s standpoint, misusing lasers can severely impact a person’s ability to see and function.”

Military threats are also on the rise. The Philippines accused a Chinese coast guard ship of using a military-grade laser to temporarily blind the crew of a Philippine ship earlier this year. In 2022, Australia said a Chinese naval vessel shined a laser at an Australian P-8. The U.S. Air Force pilots has also accused China of using lasers against Airmen in the past.

“We work closely with the intelligence community to ascertain the current laser threat, and this is an ever-evolving issue,” Zjad said. “The laser threat space is continuous and it gets more and more intricate. So we rely on that data and put that into our requirements. We also take user requirements from previous blocks and implement that. So we want to do what’s right by the user and we want to make sure that the user has the comfort and the protection that they need to safely and effectively operate aircraft.”

In such instances, your average gas station sunglasses won’t cut it.

“We really are in the high-end sunglasses industry,” Mark Beer, Aircrew Laser Eye Protection Program deputy program manager, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “So wherever there’s a defined threat, to get the protection, we put in more dyes. Your regular sunglasses, they have a low amount of dye just to darken it and prevent the visible light from coming in. So wherever there is a threat laser, then we just put in dyes to block those photons coming from that device.”

At the same time, the program is also working on nighttime glasses that can let more visible light in while still offering laser protection.

“In the past, there were some very cool technologies used to manufacture them and provide the protection levels, but it was also very, very costly,” Beer said. The Air Force wants to make it easier to get the protection. “So we’ve been primarily focusing on cheaper methods of production as well as adapting the technologies to larger curved surfaces. So your spectacles are kind of small and they’re easy to produce, but if you have a wrap-around style like sports sunglasses, it’s larger and more complex.”

On top of that, the program introduced ballistic protection on top of laser protection in Block 3, a new requirement.

“We were able to introduce some technologies into the larger curved surface of wraparound sunglasses, that made the ballistic spectacle an option, so we just started testing it to that and they passed,” Beer said.

While previous laser protection eyewear was impact-resistant, ballistic protection will ensure glasses won’t shatter when struck by small arms fire or shrapnel, concerns that especially matter to helicopter pilots and others who fly close to the ground.

Block 3 eyewear will be available to all aircrew except for those using the F-35 or U-2—and could be crucial to keeping aircraft flying in the years to come.

“There are only a certain small number of people that can do optical quality injection molding and the dyes and some of the other technologies that they work with to try to make things cheaper, lighter, work better, more comfortable to the aircrew,” Beer said. “It’s really a community effort.”

Air Force’s Most Comprehensive Suicide Study Still Not Complete

Dec. 1, 2023 | By David Roza

A first-of-its-kind comprehensive study meant to help the Department of the Air Force better focus its suicide prevention and response efforts remains a work in progress.

Originally due this past spring, the Standardized Suicide Fatality Analysis report is taking longer than expected because nothing like it has been done before and officials want to get this first annual study right, an official with knowledge of the situation told Air & Space Forces Magazine. No release date is available at this point.

The Air Force is working with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences to combine data from medical, personnel, investigation, and event reports—a compilation of some 1,000 data points for each Active Duty, Guard, Reserve, and Department of the Air Force civilian who died by suicide in 2020, according to Air Force spokesperson Master Sgt. Deana Heitzman. Once the first report is complete, subsequent studies will be released annually, Heitzman said. The next report will cover deaths by suicide that took place in 2021.

Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, first announced the initial report in a statement delivered to the House Armed Services Committee at a personnel posture hearing March 29, saying the report was due that spring.

The Air Force “looks to enhance our practices by systematically analyzing factors, identifying aggregated findings and lessons, and delivering generalizable and actionable recommendations to reduce suicide,” Miller said at the time.

Team Fairchild hosts their annual Mustache Dash event at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, March 31, 2023. The Mustache Dash was created to raise awareness for mental health that encompasses all four pillars of Comprehensive Airman Fitness: social, spiritual, mental, and physical. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Morgan Dailey

In prior years, the Air Force’s major commands each held their own annual suicide analysis boards, in which leaders and subject matter experts reviewed suicide records and reported findings to the Air Force’s integrated resilience office. This new report centralizes that effort and applies the Department of Defense’s Standardized Suicide Fatality Analysis framework to the entire Department of the Air Force.

“This report represents the first standardized and public health-driven methodology for conducting suicide death reviews across the DAF,” Air Force spokesperson Maj. Tanya Downsworth told Air & Space Forces Magazine in March. “The final reports will include actionable recommendations to inform DAF suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention programming.”

The new report is expected to increase the reliability of the department’s findings, as well the “generalizability of identified lessons learned and recommendations,” she said.

The topic of suicide in the Air Force made headlines in November when a military spouse named Lisa Hermosillo stood on a bridge near Minot Air Force Base, N.D. for three days starting Nov. 16, holding a sign that read “3 Days for 3 Lives Lost” and “Break the stigma.”

The base is investigating the deaths of three of its Airmen in October. Minot could not provide further details on the incidents, but officials said they worked with higher headquarters to make extra chaplains, counselors, and mental health professionals available for grieving Airmen and family members.

The new report would complement existing efforts by the Air Force and the Department of Defense to track deaths by suicide. The Defense Department’s most recent annual Report on Suicide in the Military released Oct. 26 showed 64 deaths by suicide in the Active-Duty Air Force in 2022, for a rate of 19.7 per 100,000 Airmen. That’s compared to 51 total and a rate of 15.3 in 2021. Still, the Air Force had the lowest recorded Active-Duty suicide rate among the services.

In September, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin detailed five lines of effort to reduce suicides across the military:

Foster a supportive environment

Improve the delivery of mental health care

Address stigma and other barriers to care

Revise suicide prevention training

Promote a culture in which “lethal means safety”

The lines of effort were distilled from the findings of the secretary’s Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee, which interviewed 2,106 service members and 670 civilians and made 127 near- and long-term recommendations for improvement.

Recommendations include improving child care programs and enhancing military pay and reimbursement processes to minimize unnecessary stress; improve leadership selection and empowering leaders to improve the predictability of individuals’ work schedules; expediting the hiring process for behavioral health professionals to ensure adequate access to care; revising suicide prevention training; and promoting secure firearm storage, including incentivizing service members to acquire their own secure firearm storage. Austin’s goal is to fully implement all of these by the end of fiscal year 2030.

“Suicide prevention is a long-term effort,” Austin wrote in his Sept. 28 memo. “Change will not happen overnight, but we have no time to spare.”

Service members and veterans who are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, and those who know a service member or veteran in crisis, can call the Veterans/Military Crisis Line for confidential support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Call 988 and press 1; text 988; or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.