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  • 'Traveling' basic cadets observe modified Ramadan

    Sunset prayers for a dozen Muslim basic cadets on July 20 began just as they might any other evening: the basic cadets took off their boots and rinsed their faces, hands and feet with water from their canteens. They settled into place in the tent that serves as the Muslim chapel in Jacks Valley:

  • Angry Unicorns: couple finds "ice is nice"

    It's Friday night and a husband and wife are on a date -- of sorts.While other couples are taking in a movie, enjoying a restaurant meal or socializing with friends, 1st Lt. Andrew Caulk and 1st Lt. Jennifer Caulk are chasing a three-inch by one-inch piece of vulcanized rubber with graphite sticks

  • 'Always our protector': Working out memories of a fallen Airman

    What does the word "gym" mean to you? Does it mean the blood, sweat and tears of weight training and cardio to get in tip-top shape? Does it symbolize a place where your buddies meet to blow off steam? To 1st Lt. Noel Carroll, it is a place where she feels at home. It is a place where she goes to

  • Military Working Dogs train at Kandahar Airfield

    His nose is working overtime. Seeking and scanning the dirt for the unseen. Aaron, a military working dog, and his handler, Staff Sgt. Larry Harris, work their pattern back and forth, while Harris gives Aaron's long leash slack letting it drag it the ground. Harris gives his commands of "seek"

  • Doc begins 'service before self' at 61

    Walking into the office of Lt. Col. (Dr.) Joseph Keenan, one could possibly imagine him in private practice in his home town -- the warm, caring doctor the community has known for many years.But his Air Force "community" has only known him for two years.Keenan, who has been an ear, nose and throat

  • It's a family tradition

    Fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins, even husbands and wives. McEntire Joint National Guard Base in South Carolina has a long history of loved ones serving side by side.Most "Swamp Fox" deployments result in family members with their boots on the same

  • Aerial Porters: Big 'Dawgs' in the yard

    Equipment, personnel, or life-saving supplies; if you need it, they will move it. The port dawgs of the 455th Expeditionary Aerial Port Squadron coordinates the bi-directional movement of assets between the U.S. to Bagram and Bagram to the forward operating bases. Bagram is one of the

  • Through my eyes: Surviving sexual assault

    (Editor's note: "This story is a personal, victim-submitted account of an actual sexual assault and its aftermath. The names and identities of the individuals involved have been omitted or altered to maintain confidentiality.")"That night, my whole world turned upside down," said Airman Samantha

  • Promotion is in your hands

    It is up to the individual to get promoted advised enlisted members here.The enlisted promotion system is based on several weighted factors, most of which are within the member's control, Senior Master Sgt. Jeff Noxon, the Air Force Personnel Center enlisted promotions and testing superintendent,

  • Air Force's best flight surgeon aims to help people

    Leaning over a small desk, the flight surgeon finishes reviewing a patient's medical file. The tall, dark-haired doctor has a warm, friendly voice that could make any patient feel at ease. She has worked in everything from small, spotless rooms, furnished with reclining, leather chairs, to the

  • Caring for the warrior's soul

    The chaplain gave the cross he brought from home to the young Marine from Florida who was injured. The Marine, who was engaged to a girl in Jacksonville, Fla., had been injured in a roadside bomb explosion and lost the cross that was on his body armor. When the chaplain presented the cross to the

  • Surviving through SERE

    To say that the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape specialists here are mere instructors doesn't begin to give them sufficient kudos for the skills, tactics and mission-essential tools they instill in aircrew members of the 27th Special Operations Wing. "It takes awesomeness and amazing genes

  • Retired master sergeant now on-air TV meteorologist

    He can be seen live most weekends and periodically throughout the week on KHQ 6 News delivering  weather forecasts for the Inland Northwest Washington. Meteorologist Dave Law owes a great deal of his success to his 23 years in the Air Force."My four years as the Chief of Weather Operations at

  • Memorial Day stirs memories for honor guard veteran

    This Memorial Day, while Americans gather to remember those who gave their lives for their freedoms, military honor guards will function as central fixtures at cemeteries, parades and solemn observances.For Tech. Sgt. Michael Brizuela, a full-time F-16 Fighting Falcon crew chief at Tucson

  • Former boom operator returns to the Air Force 50 years later

    When the F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot hooked up to the KC-135 Stratotanker and looked through his canopy into the boom window of the aircraft above, he was surprised to see the face of an 87-year-old man smiling back at him.More than 50 years ago, James Watland sat in a boom pod of a KC-135 very much

  • Health professionals offer cool advice

    Anyone who has gone through basic military training knows how seriously the instructors take "hydrating," but do the trainees really know why they are encouraged to drink water regularly and beyond thirst?The human body's main goal is to maintain homeostasis, or balance, in all aspects of function.

  • Retired chief receives dedication from Air Force Executive Dining Facility

    Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley is dedicating the Pentagon's Air Force Executive Dining Facility to its recently retired director.Alfonso Sisneros, who is also a retired chief master sergeant, retired April 30 from civil service.Sisneros managed the facility for more than 30 years. He

  • Pilot takes initiative to learn language

    In today's global world, Air Force mission success depends on Airmen's ability to communicate and collaborate across diverse cultural environments. Inspired by this idea, one Air Force pilot has taken the initiative to learn Japanese through the Air Force's Language Enabled Airman Program. Despite

  • Airman continues family's heritage of service

    Some families pass on estates, heirlooms, or recipes. All families pass on a heritage. Master Sgt. Curtis M. Wilson's family heritage is more than 300 years of military service spanning three generations.With 21 years of service already, Sergeant Wilson recently reenlisted with the help of his

  • Through my eyes: surviving sexual assault

    "That night, my whole world turned upside down," said Airman Samantha Smith, a sexual assault survivor in the Air Force.On the night Smith was recalling, she became a victim of sexual assault and took her first of many steps down the road of recovery.That night, Smith attended a party with people

  • Living with PTSD

    "I started to get really depressed and lacked the desire to do anything but sit around and play online to 'escape' the real world," he said. "I was having dreams of planes crashing, the smell of burnt flesh and rotting bodies. I still tried to push through this even as my sleep started to dwindle

  • Airman 'close to home' while deployed

    Not everyone has the pleasure of saying they served a deployment with their family, but Airman 1st Class Marita McCoy does.McCoy is assigned to the 376th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron traffic management office and is deployed here from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. Her father and

  • Weather forecasters important to mission success

    Mission ready. Not if the weather forecasters said it's a no go. An often overlooked Air Force Specialty Code is the weather forecaster. Who hasn't anguished over a weather forecast gone wrong or at an umbrella left in a stand because the forecaster predicted sunshine? "Mother Nature is

  • Red Cross award serves as solemn reminder

    Test pilots are no strangers to tragedy. Few other careers subject men and women to such risk while expecting them to fly in such an exacting manner and to recover in a moment's notice from anything that may go wrong in midair.But while tragedy was not in the forefront of Lt. Col. Ryan Osteroos'

  • Feel it in your bones: Sergeants lead the way to donating marrow

    "We start life, we live life, we defend life and sometimes we have to take life, but it's not every day when you get the chance to give life," said Tech. Sgt. Justin King, a 386th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron liaison officer, right before he went into lockdown for redeployment home. "Who

  • Father, son example of one team, one fight

    (Editor's note: The interviewees' names are exactly the same, but Airman 1st Class Walter Josephs Jr. is referred to as Josephs Jr. on second reference for clarity purposes in this article.)It isn't every day that a father has a chance to observe his son at work, especially if that son is in the Air

  • Curiosity drives paranormal investigation hobby

    When Capt. Stan Maczek was a young child, he responded to frightening sights and sounds in the dark like most of us: He pulled the covers up over his head and hoped the event would pass quickly.Nowadays, Maczek sprints enthusiastically toward those "events."He's not sure what to call himself --

  • Father-daughter duo bring past to life

    For Master Sgt. Marty Stanton, 4th Logistics Readiness Squadron vehicle management superintendent, and his daughter, Alicia, restoring pieces of the past is something they both enjoy.Stanton's love for working on cars was established while he was in high school. Unable to afford the equipment for

  • Air Force dentist plays vital role in remote Afghanistan

    In a remote valley of war torn Afghanistan, a Joint Base Charleston Airman is playing a vital role enhancing the country's practice of dentistry.Major Courtney Schapira, from the 628th Medical Group at JB Charleston - Air Base, is currently assigned to the Medical Embedded Training Team at Forward

  • Afghanistan hospital's longest resident inspires staff

    The U.S. military doctors and nurses at Craig Joint-Theater Hospital are witnesses to a full spectrum of pain and suffering that very few people could attest to. Being the main hospital in Regional Command-East to treat combat casualties, the staff somehow manages to keep their heads up while saving

  • AFCEE civilian receives overdue war honor

    For Air Force veteran John LaHue, it was an award ceremony over four decades in the making. The Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment chief financial officer received the Distinguished Flying Cross during his retirement ceremony Dec. 22 for extraordinary achievement while serving as a

  • Rescue group first sergeant takes a stand against youth homelessness

    The temperate winter conditions in southern Arizona draws in visitors from all over the U.S. who want a brief escape from severe winter weather; unfortunately, most homeless teens make the migration here to escape the cold during the winter months.To help combat the struggles of youth homelessness

  • Poking out stress

    Stress is something that can affect anyone at anytime. Two members of the 386th Expeditionary Medical Group visited the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing to give an idea of one way to manage stress: acupuncture. "Acupuncture, in Western medicine, is considered an alternative or complimentary medicine,"

  • Master sergeant continues wife's dream

    "She was my best friend for 27 years," said Master Sgt. Lee "Pepper" Spaulding, of the 24th Intelligence Squadron, 693rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group. "Jenny made me a better man. This is what she would have wanted done, so this is why I'm doing it."It started in 2004 while

  • Reserve pilot gives Minnesota boy the gift of life

    Just what does it take to save a human life? Would you believe a simple bulletin board?For Air Force Reserve Capt. Robert Wilson, the mundane act of getting up from his desk for a break would plant a seed in his mind. That seed would grow into the decision to provide a live-saving bone marrow

  • A man with a mission

    People often say, "You should never make a life changing decision while you are deployed," but two Reservists, one from the Pentagon and the other from Minnesota, chose to defy this mentality when they got engaged in a combat zone. Before deploying to the transit center here to become the 376th Air

  • Airman makes career out of Turkish

    (This feature is part of the "Through Airmen's Eyes" series on AF.mil. These stories and commentaries focus on a single Airman, highlighting their Air Force story.)Lt. Col. Stephen W. Meginniss, a force support officer, has pursued language, region and culture opportunities throughout his career and

  • Pearl Harbor survivor retraces steps, pays tribute to Airmen

    A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran, who survived the Dec. 7, 1941, attacks on then Hickam Field and Pearl Harbor, returned to the Hawaiian island of Oahu to see the place he was forced to become a man so early in his life.Nearly 70 years after the infamous day, Durward Swanson, a 90-year-old native of