The Pentagon on Saturday identified two airmen who perished in the April 8 crash of a USAF CV-22 Osprey that claimed the lives of a US soldier and a civilian employee and injured others on board. The airmen were Maj. Randell D. Voas, 43, of Lakeville, Minn., and SMSgt. James B. Lackey, 45, of Green Clove Springs, Fla., both members of the 8th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla. According to a 1st Special Operations Wing release, Voas was a CV-22 evaluator pilot and a former MH-53 pilot who traded Army green for Air Force blue in 1999. Lackey was a CV-22 evaluator flight engineer and 14-year veteran MH-53 flight engineer, who entered the Air Force in 1986. Members of the 8th SOS had been deployed to Afghanistan since March; it was the second Southwest Asia tour for the unit with its new Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. (Also see Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune report; Panama City News-Herald report)
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…