A quartet of A-10 pilots from Air Force Reserve Command’s 47th Fighter Squadron at Barksdale AFB, La., broke 20,000 combined Warthog flight hours during a formation sortie from the base. That’s a feat never before accomplished by any four A-10 fliers. During their July 15 flight, Lt. Col. David Deaton, Lt. Col. Brady Glick, then Lt. Col. James Macaulay, and Lt. Col. Marc Olson shattered the previous record of 17,742 combined hours that they set in 2008. “I’m grateful that God has blessed me by allowing me to serve my country for this long,” said Deaton after the flight. “This milestone is really a testament to the professionalism of the maintainers and the durability of the ‘Hawg,” added Macaulay, who leads the group with 5,200 flight hours. “In 20,000 hours, none of us have punched out or had a major mishap,” he noted. Upon landing, Macaulay was promoted to the rank of full colonel. (Barksdale report by TSgt. Jeff Walston)
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.