HomeNews

NATO Air Policing operations

U.S. Air Force News

  • Weather team award honors legacy of fallen Airman

    To honor the legacy and devotion of a fallen brother-in-arms, an award was dedicated to the life of Lt. Col. William Schroeder and given to a Special Operations Weather Team training pipeline graduate here July 21.

  • New commander takes charge of AFCENT

    Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian assumed command of U.S. Air Forces Central Command from Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. during a ceremony at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, July 22.

  • DOD awards TRICARE-managed care support contracts

    The Defense Department announced on July 22 that the next generation of TRICARE-managed care support contracts were awarded. The new contracts, which go into effect nine months after the award, establish two TRICARE regions in the United States: East and West, instead of the current three.

  • Amputee regains wings

    An HC-130J Combat King II pilot at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, became the sixth amputee and the first female amputee to return to the cockpit. After an above-the-knee amputation and nearly 15 months of rehabilitation -- learning to walk, run and fly again -- Air Force Capt. Christy Wise, a 71st

  • Webb takes command of AFSOC

    Lt. Gen. Brad Webb assumed command of Air Force Special Operations Command in a ceremony July 19 at Hurlburt Field, Florida.

  • Airmen practice rescuing downed pilots in Pacific Thunder 16-2

    Units from the U.S. Pacific Air Forces practiced rescuing downed pilots during exercise Pacific Thunder 16-2 in South Korea. The two-week training event combines U.S. and South Korean forces to enhance interoperability for combat search and rescue missions across the Korean Peninsula.

  • Airman selected to attend culinary forum for top US military chefs

    Airman 1st Class Alexandra Ayub, a 90th Force Support Squadron missile chef, won the Arthur J. Myers Food Service Excellence Award for the Western Hemisphere earlier this year. As a result, she’s now been selected to represent the Air Force at the Armed Forces Forum for Culinary Excellence at the

  • 100-plus aircraft fly in for exercise Red Flag 16-3

    The three-week long Red Flag 16-3, a U.S.-only exercise that tests all participating units’ combat capabilities in a joint environment that centers on multi-domain integration, kicked off at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, July 11.

  • A-10s deploy to Slovakia for cross-border training

    The 122nd Fighter Wing, which flies the A-10 "Warthog" airframe, has deployed eight A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and approximately 140 Airmen in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve for a month-long combined training event, overseas, to Sliač Air Base, Slovakia.

  • Around the Air Force: July 19

    In this look around the Air Force, the head of Air Combat Command testifies before members of the House Armed Services Committee, the KC-46 Pegasus hits another milestone, and U.S. Air Force Academy cadets experience what the deployed life is like.

  • KC-46 completes required flight tests

    The successful A-10 mission was the last of six in-flight refueling demonstrations required before the tanker program can request approval from Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, to award production Lots 1 and 2, totaling 19 KC-46A aircraft.

  • Looking Glass flight broadens Airmen’s horizon

    Missileers from across the 20th Air Force recently accompanied their commander on the Airborne National Command Post as part of a “fly along” program to witness the national impact of their mission.

  • Quality assurance Airmen ensure cargo aircraft are mission ready

    Aircraft maintainers hold themselves to a high standard when performing their daily duties because they know one mistake could lead to devastating consequences. Kadena Air Base, Japan, is home to six different airframes and a partner unit that hosts two additional airframes for cargo functions, the

  • Program works to reduce risk on next Air Force One

    The Air Force awarded a contract modification to Boeing July 15 to continue risk reduction activities for the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program, which will field the next Air Force One.

  • Love for the job fuels crew chief’s passion to fix jets

    Instead of the usual roar of F-16 Fighting Falcons preparing for another flight here, a soft, warm breeze skirting across the flightline carried the sound of tools clanking against metal. In the depths of a hangar, an Air Force crew chief worked diligently to solve the most recent maintenance

  • Saber Strike turns to medevac mission for C-17 aircrew

    After a C-17 Globemaster III aircrew from the 21st Airlift Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, California, took off June 10 for exercise Saber Strike 16, they ended up on a real-world emergency medical mission to help a fellow Airman.

  • EOD immersion serves as eye-opener

    Staff Sgt. Michael McNally, a 355th Maintenance Group scheduler, recently applied to retrain as an explosive ordnance disposal technician and attended a 10-day orientation with the EOD squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, to learn about the career field.

  • Air dominance and the critical role of fifth-generation fighters

    Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the Air Combat Command commander, discussed the importance of air superiority and the need to assure it by modernizing the combat air force during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee in Washington, D.C., July 13.

  • Former AF chief of staff recognized for analysis legacy

    Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper was honored for his analysis work with the Lt. Gen. Glenn A. Kent Leadership Award, presented by Kevin Williams, the director of Air Force Studies, Analyses and Assessments, during a July 11 ceremony at the Pentagon.

  • Airman links deployed operators to human performance experts

    Many scientists and engineers go directly from school to laboratories and do not get the opportunity to work side by side with customers who use the products they create. For a behavioral scientist in the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, that’s not the case.

  • Detachment standardizes aeromedical qualification training for total force

    Airmen assigned to 31 aeromedical evacuation squadrons across the Air Force must complete vigorous training to provide lifesaving in-transit care on fixed-wing aircraft. The 375th Air Mobility Wing’s newest formal training unit, Detachment 4, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the

  • Carter announces 560 US troops to deploy to Iraq

    Secretary of Defense Ash Carter met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi leaders in Baghdad on July 11. He commended them for the recent progress in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, including the capture of a strategic airfield near the town of

  • Around the Air Force: July 8

    In this look around the Air Force the first enlisted RQ-4 Global Hawk pilots have been selected for training, an MQ-9 Reaper crashed in northern Syria, and a C-17 Globemaster III was awarded the best static display at an air show in England.

  • Little Rock Airman saves woman from drowning

    It was June 25, a normal Saturday of kayaking at the Ouachita River Whitewater Park in Malvern, Arkansas, for Senior Airman Colton Lien and his friends when they witnessed a woman fall out her inner tube into the middle of the river.

  • Ramstein wife earns spouse of the year award

    Giving back to the local community is one of the duties that come along with service to one's country. There are some people, like Nicole Bridge, who don’t wear the uniform, but give back in an equally large way. Bridge was recently awarded the 2016 Joan Orr Air Force Spouse of the Year award.

  • Reserve C-17 wins best in show at UK air show

    Reservists from the 315th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, participated in the annual Yeovilton Air Day at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, England, on July 2, and they were also awarded the show’s top prize, the best static display award.

  • Two missions, one fight

    The 737th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron and the 386th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron have two different missions, yet work together every day to ensure the single mission of the C-130 Hercules can equip and prepare our forces to stay in the fight another day.

  • July issue of Airman magazine now available

    The July issue of Airman magazine is now available to download and is viewable through a web browser. In the cover story, titled “Arctic Vigil,” you’ll go behind the scenes with the 176th Air Defense Squadron and the Combat Alert Cell of F-22 Raptors that monitor the sovereign airspace around Alaska

  • First USAF F-35A takes overseas flight to England

    The Air Combat Command F-35A Heritage Flight team accomplished America’s first transatlantic flight in an F-35A Lightning II, with refueling support from a KC-10 Extender, when it touched down June 30 at Royal Air Force Fairford, England.

  • Combined JTF-Operation Inherent Resolve releases strike video

    Coalition strikes on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters fleeing in a convoy near Habbaniyah, Iraq, were recently conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria and the wider international

  • Coalition leader talks airpower effects

    The head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command took time June 28 to discuss the impact airpower has had in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and throughout Southwest Asia during a visit with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing.

  • Small team ensures special tactics career fields grow with the best

    Special tactics career field training pipelines are some of the most physically and psychologically challenging in the Air Force. To ensure the correct individuals are on the battlefield, the Recruitment, Assessment and Selection team at Hurlburt Field, Florida, puts the cross-training candidates

  • Air Force Junior ROTC partners up with AFA for StellarXplorer competition

    The Air Force Association is striving to increase participation in its third annual StellarXplorers competition this year by teaming up with the Air Force Junior ROTC headquarters. The new partnership will introduce the event to almost four times as many students compared to previous years.

  • Airmen help save fishermen at sea after ship catches fire

    Members of a special operations surgical team assigned to the 720th Special Tactics Group at Hurlburt Field, Florida, worked to save the lives of two critically-burned fishermen rescued 500 miles off the coast of Bermuda on June 22.

  • Wargame provides reality check for war plans

    More than 70 mobility and logistics professionals from the U.S. and three allied countries convened for an exercise known as Global Mobility, Agile Combat Support (GLOMO/ACS) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, June 20-24. Air Mobility Command has led the biennial wargame since 2002. In

  • AF moving forward with restructure of missileer career field

    The commander of Air Force Global Strike Command directed a review of the nuclear and missile operations career field earlier this year, with the goal of creating a self-sustaining career field. The review was recently completed, and over the past week, Maj. Gen. Anthony Cotton, 20th Air Force

  • Montana's last Doolittle Raider honored

    Seventy-four years after the historic Doolittle Tokyo Raid, former Staff Sgt. David J. Thatcher, one of two remaining Doolittle Raiders, was laid to rest June 27 in Missoula. He was 94.

  • Teamwork, airlift keys to success of exercise in Gabon

    Airmen from the 62nd Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, participated in Central Accord 2016, a joint military exercise with nearly 1,000 participants from 14 countries, which took place on the western coast of Africa June 10-24.

  • Kunsan maintainers give F-16 new wings

    Airmen assigned to the 8th Maintenance Squadron and 8th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, are tasked to ensure one aircraft is ready to fly, fight and win with a simultaneous double-wing replacement.

  • Osan, local community remember Airman involved in recent fire rescue

    A memorial service to remember Staff Sgt. Cierra Rogers, a 731st Air Mobility Squadron Airman, took place at Osan Air Base, South Korea, on June 24. Military and civilian members of the Osan AB and Pyeongtaek community gathered alongside the Airman’s family to honor Rogers, a 731st Air Mobility

  • Documenting a tragedy: Global Strike historian recalls Khobar Towers

    Yancy Mailes, the Air Force Global Strike Command historian, was a 27-year-old staff sergeant at the time. It was June 25, 1996, and he had been the wing’s historian for three months. With little training and less experience, he found himself as one of the key contributors to documenting the tragedy

  • AF announces total force award

    Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced the annual General Mark A. Welsh III One Air Force Award during a retirement dinner held in honor of the award’s namesake in Washington, D.C., June 23, 2016.This new Air Force-level award will be presented to the service’s top total force team that

  • Edwards team creates mobile, reconfigurable cockpit

    The Portable Manned Interactive Cockpit was designed and is being built by members of the 772nd Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The PMIC is expected to be completed and ready for use by July 2016.

  • Minnesota guardsmen help secure skies above South Korea

    The Air National Guard is frequently called upon when U.S. Pacific Command needs additional assets to deliver rapid air capabilities in the Pacific region, and Airmen from the 148th Fighter Wing out of Duluth, Minnesota, are currently stepping up to that call.

  • Liaison officers keep communication flowing in Swift Response

    As exercise Swift Response 16 began phase II, with C-130J Super Hercules aircraft flying overhead and Soldiers operating on the ground, air mobility liaison officers kept effective communications flowing between both elements to ensure a successful exercise.

  • ACC: F-35 on track for IOC

    The F-35A Lightning II is on track to declare initial operational capability between August and December. Col. David Chace, the F-35 systems management office chief and lead for F-35 operational requirements at Air Combat Command, answers questions on the fifth-generation fighter.

  • Guardsmen train at Maintenance University

    More than 260 Air National Guard members from five states attended a weeklong course in aircraft maintenance here to enhance proficiency in everything from hydraulics to electrical generation.The annual event, now in its eighth year, is called Maintenance University, said Capt. James Campbell, the

  • Brothers connect at 22,000 feet

    A couple months ago, two KC-135 Stratotankers took flight from Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, to participate in an ordinary air refueling training exercise, but for the Marchesseault brothers, the day was anything but ordinary.

  • A dog and his handler

    Senior Airman Tariq Russell and his dog, Ppaul, rely on the relationship they've developed with each other to create a safe working environment at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, while protecting Airmen.

  • Former basic training instructor fulfills dream to practice law

    For Senior Master Sgt. Alex Brown, a 20-year Air Force veteran and Arizona Air National Guard member, a lifelong calling to practice law set him upon an arduous journey to fulfill a dream. That dream recently became reality when he passed the Arizona bar exam.

  • Commander fatally shot at work laid to rest at Arlington

    Two months after Lt. Col. William “Bill” Schroeder was fatally shot during an incident of workplace violence, the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard laid him to rest with full military honors June 16 at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

  • 433rd AW becomes first Reserve wing to get new C-5M

    The saying “history repeats itself” has become all too familiar to the 433rd Airlift Wing, as hundreds of Airmen and distinguished guests gathered along the flightline at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, on June 17 to welcome the wing’s first C-5M Super Galaxy, named “The City of San

  • Kentucky ANG Airmen help renovate school in Moldova

    Airmen from the Kentucky Air National Guard in partnership with officials from Moldova and U.S. European Command started a humanitarian project in Chisinau, Moldova, on June 3 that’s expected to last several weeks.

  • Carter announces more US support for Afghan forces

    U.S. forces in Afghanistan now will be able to boost support for Afghan conventional forces with more firepower and by accompanying and advising them on the ground and in the air, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said June 15 in Brussels.

  • Hanscom historian captures share of Air Force-level award

    Hanscom Air Force Base historian Randy Bergeron has earned a share of the Dennis F. Casey Award for Excellence in Periodic History in the Albert S. Simpson Category for co-authoring the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's periodic history last year.

  • Around the world in 14 days

    In 1873, Phileas Fogg, the fictional protagonist in Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days” circumnavigated the globe by rail and steamer ship in, of course, 80 days. Unfortunately for Fogg, he did not have access to a C-5M Super Galaxy to accomplish this feat quicker.

  • Bold dreams propel war-torn child to AF flight engineer

    Growing up, Master Sgt. Kristofer Reyes and his cousins would use rubber and rocks from a nearby recycling center and create games. He was born to a poor family in Luzon, Phillipines. His parents divorced when he was 2 years old and his mom moved to the U.S. That left him and his siblings stuck in

  • Edwards testing facility hosts first Canadian air force plane

    For the first time ever, a Royal Canadian Air Force plane has entered the Benefield Anechoic Facility, a state-of-the-art center for electronic warfare testing. A team of engineers, operators and defense scientists from Canada are wrapping up electronic warfare testing of a CC-130J Hercules

  • Support personnel, F-16s enhance partnership with Poland

    About 350 personnel are supporting 20 F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy, and the 138th Fighter Wing at Tulsa Air National Guard Base, Oklahoma, as part of bilateral flying training with the Polish Air Force.

  • Hanscom going green with electric vehicles

    In efforts to save energy, the 66th Logistics Readiness Squadron recently unveiled Hanscom Air Force Base's first plug-in electric hybrid vehicle and charging station.

  • Airmen express their passion with off-duty tunes

    Five Airmen assigned to various career fields across the 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing came together with one goal in mind -- to influence those around them through music. The Airmen formed a band consisting of two guitarists, a drummer, a saxophonist and a vocalist.

  • Minot B-52s begin Baltops 16 flying ops

    A B-52H Stratofortress aircrew from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, conducted their first flying training mission in support of the multinational exercise Baltops 16 on June 7 from Royal Air Force Fairford.

  • Kadena fuels flight powers through to earn API award

    The 18th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Japan, recently won the prestigious American Petroleum Institute award. The annual API award, which has been around for 50 years, honors the top active-duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve fuels management flight in recognition of

  • Around the Air Force: June 7

    On this look around the Air Force, President Barack Obama speaks at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s commencement ceremony; battlefield Airmen get their own training group; and an update on C-130J Super Hercules aircraft destined for Yokota Air Base, Japan.

  • Wheels up: Hill shop improves F-35 tire change process

    For years, the wheel shop at Hill Air Force Base has disassembled, inspected, repaired, built, and delivered reliable tires and wheels for F-16 Fighting Falcons. That reliability and 24-hour turnaround service will remain intact as the base's operational mission transitions to the F-35A Lightning

  • US military showcases aircraft at Berlin air show

    U.S. military aircraft based in America and Europe were on display during this year’s Berlin air and trade show from June 1-4. The International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) is one of the oldest air shows around dating back more than 100 years.