Rita support

BEAUMONT, Texas -- Critical Care Air Transport Teams from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas and the Mississippi Air National Guard along with Contingency Response Group Element personnel, work together at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport Sept. 23 to strap down patients’ wheelchairs in a C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Hurricane Rita relief efforts. The aircraft is from Mississippi ANG’s 172nd Airlift Wing. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Lance Cheung)

C-141 makes proud departure

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- Airmen applaud and cheer, thanking injured Soldiers and Marines for their service in the war on terrorism as they are brought aboard the last C-141 Starlifter aeromedical evacuation flight from a combat zone Sept. 29. The aircraft, assigned to Air Force Reserve Command's 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, transported the injured servicemembers to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, for treatment. The flight concluded more than three decades of overseas aeromedical evacuation missions with the aircraft, beginning during the Vietnam War. (U.S. Air Force photo by Maj. Robert Couse-Baker)

Hoist rescue

NEW ORLEANS -- Tech. Sgt. Lem Torres and a young boy are lifted to safety from the roof of the child's flooded home. The pararescueman is from 38th Rescue Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., and is deployed to New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina search-and-rescue operations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez)

Air Force evacuates the sick and wounded

NEW ORLEANS -- Capt. Gary Hardy helps prepare sick and injured people for a flight aboard a C-17 Globemaster III. They are being evacuated from the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina to Dobbins Air Force Base, Ga. Captain Hardy a flight nurse with the 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, at Pope AFB, N.C., and other Air Force Critical Care Aeromedical Teams have cared for thousands of evacuees. The aircraft and flight crew are from the 446th Airlift Wing at McChord Air Force Base, Wash. (U.S. Air Force photo Master Sgt. Lance Cheung)

Group Burial

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va. -- Honor guard Airmen hold flags to be presented to the families of four U.S. Airmen and an Iraqi Airman who died May 30 in an aircraft accident in Iraq. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Amber K. Whittington)

Special delivery

OVER VIRGINIA -- Lt. Col. James Hecker flies over Fort Monroe before delivering the first operational F-22A Raptor to its permanent home at Langley Air Force Base, Va., on May 12. This is the first of 26 Raptors to be delivered to the 27th Fighter Squadron. The Raptor program is managed by the F-22A System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Colonel Hecker is the squadron's commander. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker)