NATO Air Policing operations

U.S. Air Force News

  • Air Force awards first ESPC of 2018

    Recently, the Defense Logistics Agency awarded a $42 million energy savings performance contract,or ESPC, to be executed and maintained by Energy Systems Group, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. This represents the Air Force’s first such awarded contract of 2018.

  • RAF, RSAF observe Cerberus Strike

    Distinguished visitors from the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force visited Travis Air Force Base April 26 through May 2, 2018, to get a first-hand experience of the 821st Contingency Response Group capability to provide expeditionary mobility support.

  • Iraqi Air Force aerial porters load cargo like the best

    In a small office space at Al Muthana Air Base, U.S. Air Force 370th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group air advisors and Iraqi airmen enjoy a small cup of tea together. Iraqi Air Force Col. Yossif Halo, the base air terminal operations center commander, sits with the team and casually highlights the

  • Reserve Airmen earn Rescue Mission of the Year award

    Thirty-three 920th Rescue Wing Reserve Airmen were recently honored with the 2017 Jolly Green Association Rescue Mission of the Year award for their actions July 7, 2017 in saving two German sailors stranded in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 500 miles off the coast of Florida.

  • Little guy, big fixed heart: part II

    When Ashley and Tech. Sgt. Ben Mockovciak, 372nd Training Squadron Detachment 202 F-16 tactical aircraft maintenance instructor, learned their son Noah, barely one month old, had experienced a heart attack, their world was turned upside down.

  • Little guy, big fixed heart: part I

    When Ashley and Tech. Sgt. Ben Mockovciak learned they would soon be parents, they were overwhelmed with the exciting idea of welcoming a healthy, beautiful child into their family.

  • Air Force ramps up flying ICU teams

    When the U.S. military needs to transport critically injured patients by air, it calls on Air Force Critical Care Air Transport Teams. The Air Force is increasing CCATT capabilities to meet the needs of the warfighter.

  • High School to Flight School

    Officials at Air Force Reserve Command headquarters, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, are hoping an innovative new program will help the command meet its need for flight engineers.

  • Minot rescue crew saves man trapped from flood

    Members of the 54th Helicopter Squadron at Minot Air Force Base responded to a search and rescue call involving a man trapped in his cabin surrounded by rising flood water in Savage, Montana, March 24, 2018.

  • Around the Air Force: April 30

    On this look Around the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee for the 2019 Fiscal Budget, the 911thAirlift Wing switches to C-17s, humanitarian cargo is delivered to Guatemala, and Guard and Reserve Airmen train for wildfire

  • Strength in recovery: victim becomes advocate

    It was not the 21st birthday she was expecting. She got off of work at midnight, and her coworker asked her if she wanted to celebrate. Tired, but still wanting to have some fun, she agreed.

  • AF announces changes to Courses 14 and 15

    Effective immediately, Air Force officials have removed the requirement to complete Courses 14 and 15 for all Airmen serving in the active component. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Airmen will have the option to complete their enlisted professional military education through distance

  • Air Force Chief Data Office hosts inaugural workshop

    More than 70 representatives from major commands and functional communities across the Air Force gathered in Arlington, Virginia, April 11- 13, 2018, to collaborate on the way forward for defining an enterprise-wide, scalable capability that makes data visible, accessible, understandable, linked,

  • Air Guard, Reserve wings kick off annual MAFFS training

    As temperatures heated up in northern California, aerial firefighters from four C-130 airlift wings operating the U.S.D.A. Forest Service’s Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, or MAFFS, started a weeklong training April 23, 2018, in anticipation of summer blazes.

  • Airman revives JBA designated driver program

    Airman 1st Class Nala Cormier was 11 years old on the day she heard sudden, frantic noises of hysteria and dismay outside her Church Point, Louisiana, home. She followed the sounds until she found the source – her older sister holding her toddler son in her arms, wailing.

  • BLUE Episode 24: The Bombers

    FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (AFNS) – With the ability to carry almost any weapon the Air Force has to offer, Strategic bombers are a mainstay in the U.S. arsenal. Just the threat of using one can be enough to change the enemy's mind. In this edition of BLUE we find out how the Air Force uses strategic

  • AFPC adopting innovative officer assignment system IT platform

    Talent Marketplace is an innovative technological platform supporting the officer assignment system that aims to increase flexibility and transparency for officers and commanders. It is the final piece of the revised officer assignment system triad, which includes advanced assignment notification to

  • 621st CRW Airmen enable Rapid Global Mobility during JRTC exercise

    Airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing stationed at Travis Air Force Base, California, conducted joint training with Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, to provide direct air-land support for safe and efficient airfield operations during the Joint Readiness

  • AETC conducts first-ever squadron command team course

    Air Education and Training Command conducted its first-ever Squadron Command Team and Spouses Course April 10-13, 2018, with 45 current or incoming commanders, 15 superintendents and 29 spouses participating in the new program.

  • JB Charleston trains ANG to be globemasters

    The first of four C-17 Globemaster IIIs was transferred from Joint Base Charleston to the Charlotte Air National Guard, N.C. April 7, 2018 as part of a congressional mandate.Through this directive Joint base Charleston will send 16 C-17s to four Air National Guard bases.

  • Safety perspective has allowed Human Systems Integration program to thrive

    When Maj. Shawnee Williams arrived at the Human Systems Integration Directorate, part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing here, she found herself in unfamiliar territory and facing an operationally misunderstood program. So she looked at the programmatics of her

  • Revitalizing squadrons: A commander's perspective

    Over the course of a 20 year career, I have experienced some challenges at the squadron level due to decisions made by higher headquarters staff personnel that have negatively impacted squadrons or go against what a commander might think is best for their squadron.

  • Air Force offers several paths from stripes to bars

    Our military offers many opportunities for military members to receive world class training that prepares them for a future in the military with skills and educational benefits that also prepare them for the civilian workforce. We ensure service members have the expertise and skills they need to

  • Women of Weather: Hurricane Hunters make a difference

    Those goals became reality for Maj. Ashley Lundry, an aerial reconnaissance weather officer, and Maj. Devon Meister, a pilot, both members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, referred to as the Hurricane Hunters, a unit in the 403rd Wing at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi.

  • Ops support assists with KC-135 mission during Red Flag 18-2

    Airmen from the 92nd Operations Group from Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, 6th OG from MacDill AFB, Florida and 931st Operations Support Squadron from McConnell AFB, Kansas, flew to Nellis AFB in support of the KC-135 Stratotankers’ role in exercise Red Flag 18-2.

  • 2018 U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School applications due May 27

    Test pilots aren’t born; they're trained to be the best of the best by the USAF Test Pilot School. The TPS selection board is accepting applications until May 27, 2018 from eligible Total Force officers and current Air Force civilians

  • 19th Air Force experts transform flying training syllabi

    Maj. Gen. Patrick Doherty, 19th Air Force commander, asked his team to deliver a redesigned Undergraduate Pilot Training syllabi “that embraced common sense and held ideas from the leaders and instructor corps to produce more pilots, higher quality pilots with agility and speed.” The homework

  • Physical therapist strengthens EOD mission readiness

    For some Air Force careers, everyday physical demands can have a significant impact on an Airman’s comprehensive fitness in a big way. Explosive ordnance disposal Airmen at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, are working with the 39th Medical Operations Squadron to help reduce the stress that comes with

  • Airmen participate in joint rescue mission

    Rescue Airmen from the 23rd Wing recently participated in a joint rescue operation alongside other Air Force and Marine Corps assets, approximately 675 nautical miles off the coast of California.

  • Travis AFB beta tests lasers

    Travis Air Force Base, California, prides itself on leading the way in innovation and continues to look toward the future with a laser removal process that has enhanced the 60th Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance section’s efficiency since the arrival of two lasers in April 2017.

  • Should we really “pin them where they win them”

    Active duty Air Force members who have changed stations in the recent past (approximately the last ten years or so) are likely to have experienced a push to get their PCS decoration written and awarded before PCSing so that their shop, or even their commander, can present the medal prior to the

  • Airman earns medal for rescuing double amputee from flood

    In total darkness, with temperatures only in the high 30s and in the midst of a monstrous rainstorm, Tech. Sgt. Phillip Dyer waded into rapidly-moving, chest-deep-and-rising waters to save a trapped flood victim on the verge of hypothermia and drowning.

  • CMSAF Wright gives all call at Peterson AFB

    Airmen arrived early to fill the base auditorium seats at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, for an all call with Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright, March 6, 2018.

  • Pilot Training Next lands at Sheppard AFB

    The Pilot Training Next program is made up of 15 officers and five enlisted Airmen who have begun an experimental training program designed to use emerging technology combined with a new paradigm for pilot training intended to discover ways to create what is being termed fighter training unit-ready

  • Hearts of strength

    She heard the dull and tiresome beep from a heart monitor in a dark hospital room in the Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, Alabama, on March 12, 2014. Light cut into the room as the door opened and a doctor walked in, waking her and her husband, Kyle Kramer.

  • Fueling the SOF human weapon system

    Special tactics operators function as state-of-the-art human weapon systems and are force multipliers integrating airpower onto the battlefield. Dozens of different factors play into their ability to project forces, but there’s one area that can be easily overlooked: nutrition.

  • Airmen code for combat in Cambridge

    Six teams of Airmen hung up their camo and dress uniforms to don hoodies and Star Wars apparel before traveling to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they work with civilian software coders to build combat applications. The group of Hanscom Air Force Base Airmen are participating in the Air Operations

  • 21st OWS: Writers of the storm

    Planning for operations in the military takes information from multiple sources. Weather is one of the most important factors determining mission safety. Airmen assigned to the 21st Operational Weather Squadron began tracking winter storm Friederike from infancy to a record storm persisting three

  • Around the Air Force: Feb. 23

    On this look around the Air Force, Airmen in Hawaii demonstrate hydrogen as an alternative fuel source, the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine is using the DARI system to predict injuries, and the AirForce is looking for First Sergeant of the Year nominations. Hosted by Staff Sgt. Samantha

  • T-X to replace T-38 at pilot training bases

    The Air Force announced Feb. 21, 2018, that the Advanced Pilot Trainer (T-X) will replace T-38C Talon aircraft at existing undergraduate pilot training bases, with Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph named as the preferred location for the first T-X aircraft scheduled to arrive in 2022.

  • SOST members earn Bronze Star Medals

    The brightly lit, inviting atrium of the University of Alabama Hospital is a far cry from the two room, concrete-walled farmhouse in the Middle East where the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Surgical Team, based out of the UAB, deployed in 2016. During their four-month tour at that casualty

  • Sunsetting the MQ-1 Predator: A history of innovation

    The MQ-1 Predator is a remotely piloted aircraft flown by aircrew assigned to the 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Creech Air Force Base and units around the world. It has contributed to the U.S. warfighting efforts in unprecedented ways and is scheduled to sunset on March 9, 2018, as the

  • Communication on demand

    The 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron trains with a communication fly-away kit for these what-if scenarios.

  • Air Force members win Black Engineer of the Year Awards

    Senior leader officials recognized two Air Force members at the 32nd Black Engineer of the Year Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Global Competitiveness Conference, Feb. 9, 2018, in Washington, D.C., for exceptional achievements in STEM career fields.

  • Medal of Honor recipient, former POW laid to rest

    As a Medal of Honor recipient and former Prisoner of War, retired Col. Leo Thorsness’s life mantra after returning home from the Vietnam War was “Faith, Family, Friends and Fun.”With the support of Air Force senior leaders, his wife, Gaylee, and daughter, Dawn, kept those words close as they said

  • 122nd FW takes joint training to new heights

    The 122nd Fighter Wing recently completed Operation Guardian Blitz during a two-week joint training exercise at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, which included air-to-air refueling, training alongside Navy rotary assets and joint terminal attack controllers.

  • Air National Guard hosts Open Skies flight

    The Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing hosted members of partner military forces for joint training flights over the U.S. at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base here, January 31 to February 2, 2018.

  • AFSVA announces art contest winners

    When 2017 Air Force Art Contest results were announced recently, two artists from the same installation celebrated repeat victories. Josh Pugeau, 709th Maintenance Support Squadron civilian missile inspector at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, won the adult accomplished division with his charcoal “Bearded

  • Around the Air Force: Feb. 2

    On this look around the Air Force, Airmen from the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron return from deployment, findings in an MQ-1B crash are released and Airmen assigned to the 432nd Wing and 432nd Expeditionary Wing receive the Doolittle Award.

  • Resources and support for pregnancy and infant loss

    October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, where organizations and communities everywhere host events to commemorate the lives parents and families have lost due to miscarriage, stillbirth and infant loss. However, Rendon is on a mission to make pregnancy and infant loss awareness more