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U.S. Air Force News

  • AF Week in Photos

    This week's photos feature Airmen from around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This weekly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.

  • AF Week in Photos

    This week's photos feature Airmen from around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This weekly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.

  • AF Week in Photos

    This week's photos feature Airmen from around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This weekly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.

  • Not Forgotten

    When you walk into many dining facilities in the Air Force, you see it in the corner or off to the side: the lone chair and place setting. In the hurries of our day, we become numb to the sight of it: the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action table with a setting for someone who has never returned.

  • Col. George Day advanced to the rank of brigadier general

    Medal of Honor recipient Col. George “Bud” Day was posthumously advanced to the rank of brigadier general during a Heritage to Horizons summer concert series at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, June 8, 2018.

  • 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

  • POW recalls mission that led to capture 50 years ago

    On Oct. 25, 1967, now retired Lt. Col. Richard Smith and his wingmen had orders to bomb the Paul Doumer Bridge in North Vietnam; the bridge was a mile long and one of the most heavily defended positions in Southeast Asia.

  • DPAA Accounts for 183 Missing Service Members in Fiscal Year 2017

    In fiscal year 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for 183 formerly missing persons from past conflicts. Also, the agency individually identified the remains of 18 additional personnel, who were previously accounted for as part of group burials, reaching another milestone of 201

  • AF Week in Photos

    This week's photos feature Airmen from around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This weekly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.

  • Search for our fallen continues

    Drenched in sweat from the hot, humid Vietnam weather, our shovels breached the earth’s surface excavating the ground and placing it into buckets to be screened as we searched for one of our own.

  • Around the Air Force: Aug. 2

    On this look around the Air Force B-1B Lancers fly by the Korean peninsula in a show of force, F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots and maintainers finish a training deployment to Royal Air Force Lakenheath, and a Cold War POW is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Hosted by Airman 1st Class Jasmine

  • Medal of Honor recipient passes away at 85

    Col. Leo K. Thorsness, Medal of Honor recipient, passed away May 2, 2017, in St. Augustine, Florida, at the age of 85, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

  • Bataan Death March: Airman honors POW grandfather

    Starvation, torture and a 70-mile march to concentration camps or dying in the process were the only options Philippine soldier, the late Ricardo Plana, faced after the U.S. surrendered the Bataan Peninsula to the Japanese during World War II. Now, 75 years later, his grandson, Staff Sgt. Max Biser,

  • Persian Gulf War POW shares her story at Mildenhall

    Retired Army Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum visited Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, March 2, 2017, to share her story of resiliency when she was a prisoner of war during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

  • Tech Report: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

    Never leave an Airman behind. In this Air Force Tech Report, we look at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency as they search far and wide for any remains of service members lost during conflicts to ensure closure is brought to their families.

  • USAFE band member discovers family history on Memorial Day

    Senior Airman Colby Fahrenbacher, a tuba player in the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Band, grew up hearing stories about his great-uncle Merle Noffsinger, who served with the Army Air Force. Fahrenbacher's great-uncle, Tech. Sgt. Merle Noffsinger, was a gunner and bombardier on the B-24 Liberator, and

  • 24-hour journey for heroes, father

    He reached his 5th hour of running alone in the still of a dark, cold night lit only by streetlights surrounding the track -- 25 miles down, 75 more to go.

  • World War II Airman's remains identified

    The remains of an Airman missing since World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors, said the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in a Defense Department news release issued Aug. 6.

  • POW visits Pentagon tribute section, reminisces about hard times

    Retired Col. Leon Ellis was a prisoner of war for 1,955 days during the Vietnam War. During a July 16 visit to the Pentagon, he and his family stopped by the Air Force POW tribute section. Ellis said some painful memories flooded back about his time as a POW as he viewed the paintings.

  • Optimism helped Vietnam vet survive as POW

    When 2nd Lt. John "Spike" Nasmyth climbed into his F-4 Phantom II on Sept. 4, 1966, to fly a combat mission over Vietnam, he never foresaw that he'd be blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile.The last words he heard before his jet was transformed into a lump of crumpled, metal wreckage were

  • POW receives medal seven decades later

    For a former U.S. Army Air Force veteran, a seven-decade long wait ended when Col. James C. Hodges, the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and 87th Air Base Wing commander here, presented the former prisoner of war the POW Medal for services during World War II, Jan. 27, 2014, in the presence of

  • POW's legacy helps nephew in leadership roles

    Military tradition runs deep in some families, with generation after generation raising their right hand and swearing to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. One family however, has continued to put its mark on military service even after inconceivable anguish struck during the

  • POW tells story of survival

    When you first meet him, you would probably think he is just another veteran with an incredibly humorous attitude. However, after a few moments of talking and getting to know him, you find out there is much more to him than meets the eye.While he is funny and charismatic, Retired Air Force Lt. Col.

  • Missing Airmen from Vietnam War identified

    The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, or DPMO, announced today that the remains of Air Force pilots Maj. James E. Sizemore of Lawrenceville, Ill., and Maj. Howard V. Andre Jr., of Memphis, Tenn., have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full