Members of the Connecticut Air National Guard’s 103rd Airlift Wing have been meeting all their mission requirements and maintaining a 100 percent mission success rate during their first deployment to Southwest Asia with their C-21 transports. Members of the wing—all volunteers—left for the combat theater in July. It was their first stint in the region in six years, and the first time they deployed with the C-21s since losing their A-10 ground-attack platforms courtesy of BRAC 2005. “The 103rd AW has definitely risen to the challenge,” said Lt. Col. Brian Burger, 379th Expeditionary Operations Group C-21 detachment commander. Maj. Wayne Ferris of the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron added, “Our numbers are off the charts. Our full mission-capable rate is 98.5 percent, and our fix rate is 100 percent with zero break rates.” (379th AEW report by SrA. Michael Matkin)
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.