A depot field team from Robins AFB, Ga., flew to Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., to retrieve the horizontal stabilizer from a retired C-5A Galaxy that recently entered the service’s aircraft boneyard. Maintainers will take this stabilizer, or “stab” in their parlance, and place it on another C-5. The Air Force has six C-5s in the fleet that still require stab replacement by December 2012, or they will be grounded for safety reasons, according to Robins officials. Since they aren’t scheduled for programmed depot maintenance until after the deadline, they are coming to Robins just for the stab replacement. The first of them is expected to arrive at Robins later this year. It will get the stab pulled from the boneyard, said Robins officials. They said the C-5’s stab is huge: “bigger than an F-15.” (Robins report by Wayne Crenshaw)
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.