Due to scheduled runway construction this summer, F-15s from the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes ANG Base in Westfield will temporarily split operations between Otis ANG Base on Cape Cod and Westover Air Reserve Base near Springfield, according to Barnes officials. The wing will maintain its aerospace control alert posture at Cape Cod, while flying training missions out of Westover, states Barnes’ May 30 release. “We anticipate approximately 12 F-15s will be based at Westover as we complete our construction projects here at Barnes,” said Col. James Keefe, 104th FW commander. Operating the training missions at Westover “will allow us to maintain our proficiency, while we maintain our alert posture at Otis,” he said. Otis, home to the Air Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, lost its F-15s to Barnes as part of BRAC 2005. There’s still some infrastructure at Otis from its fighter days that the Barnes airmen will be able to utilize. Westover is home to Air Force Reserve Command’s 439th Airlift Wing. Barnes’ runway repairs are scheduled to take up to six months to complete, meaning the F-15s are expected to be back home by year’s end. (See also Otis release.)
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.