News from the Air Force

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Burial for Airman's Identified Remains:

TSgt. Allen J. Avery, of Arlington, Mass., will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday—exactly 40 years to the day of his HH-53C Super Jolly Green Giant crashing in Quang Tri Province in South Vietnam. Allen was one of six airmen flying in the helicopter on a combat search and rescue mission that day when enemy ground fire struck the platform and it crashed. In 2010, as a result of mitochondrial DNA testing, Defense Department forensic scientists were able to identify four of the six airmen, including Avery, from sets of remains recovered as far back as 1988.

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Cadets Break Formation Jump Record:

Air Force Academy cadets set a new collegiate record for the largest formation parachute jump, according to academy officials. The Wings of Blue parachute team broke the previous 41-person formation record—also held by the team—by linking 46 parachutists together in mid freefall on March 31 over Gila Bend, Ariz. Jumping from 16,500 feet, the cadets assembled the ring formation in 52 seconds, holding for 10 seconds before dropping below 6,500 feet and deploying their chutes. The team planned to make 10 jumps to set a 48-person record, but was forced to cut two jumpers to ease the link-up, said the academy officials. The team made a total of five jumps over two days, setting the new record on the fourth attempt on March 31. Six pilots, three cameramen, and three mechanics supported the nine underclassmen and 37 upperclassmen on the jumps.

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Air Force Cross for Air Commando:

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz will award Capt. Barry F. Crawford Jr. the Air Force Cross—the second highest honor for valor in combat—at a Pentagon ceremony on Thursday. On May 4, 2010, Crawford, a special tactics officer assigned to an Army special forces team in eastern Afghanistan, "placed himself at grave risk on four occasions while controlling over 33 aircraft and more than 40 airstrikes on a well-trained and well-prepared enemy force" during an intense 10-hour-plus firefight, states his award citation (partially redacted at the Air Force's request). It adds, "His selfless actions and expert airpower employment neutralized a numerically superior enemy force and enabled friendly elements to exfiltrate the area without massive casualties." Crawford will become the fifth Air Force special operator to receive the Air Force Cross since Sept. 11, 2001, and only the third living recipient during that span. Only seven other airmen have earned the honor since 1975.

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Sijan Award Presented:

Four Airmen received the 2011 Lance P. Sijan Leadership Award during a ceremony in the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes. Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz hosted the April 6 event, presenting the award to: Maj. Laura DeJong, criminal investigations policy and program manager for the Air Force Inspector General's office; Capt. Gilbert Wyche, mobility and resources officer in charge for the 48th Security Forces Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, England; SMSgt. Timothy Sterner, command explosive ordnance disposal superintendent for Pacific Air Forces at JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; and TSgt Nathaniel Hoag, combat controller with the 24th Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Field, N.C. "We recognize these four outstanding individuals for demonstrating the highest quality of leadership," said Schwartz. The annual Sijan award, named in honor of the first Air Force Academy graduate to receive the Medal of Honor, recognizes officer and enlisted honorees who best exemplify the service's core values of integrity, service, and excellence.

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The US arsenal of strategic nuclear warheads and launchers is slowly coming down to meet the ceilings imposed by the New START agreement with Russia, according to the latest biannual, bilateral exchange of data that the treaty requires. The State Department on April 6, 2012, released a fact sheet with the aggregate numbers of each nation's respective arsenal through March 1, 2012. Under the terms of New START, the United States and Russia may have no more than 1,550 deployed warheads, 700 deployed launchers, and 800 deployed/non-deployed launchers in their respective arsenals by February 2018. Here, members of a ground crew salute a B-52H Stratofortress, part of the Air Force's nuclear-capable bomber force, before its departure on a training mission from Barksdale AFB, La.

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Angels in the Arctic:

C-17s and C-130s operating from JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, are airlifting more than 250 military medical personnel to remote villages throughout the state for Arctic Care 2012, a medical training exercise that runs through April 23. Since many villages in western Alaska are accessible only by air, "the direct medical care that will be provided by the doctors and nurses is usually unavailable," said outreach administrator Pattie Lillie. During the two-week operation, the Alaska Air National Guard's 176th Wing and Active Duty 3rd Wing are working alongside Army National Guard aircraft to shuttle teams to 16 remote locations in the Bering Strait and Norton Sound regions. In addition to aiding rural Alaskans, Arctic Care provides military medics "deployment training in a non-threatening environment," explained Lt. Col. Sharolyn Lange, chief nurse for the 176th Medical Group, who is medical commander for the exercise's joint task force.

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Crawford Awarded Air Force Cross:

Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz awarded Capt. Barry Crawford the Air Force Cross—the second highest honor for valor in combat—during a Pentagon ceremony Thursday. "It's not hard to be utterly impressed by his bravery and inspired by his selflessness," said Schwartz of Crawford during the ceremony, which recognized Crawford's extraordinary heroism in Afghanistan on May 4, 2010. Crawford was a special tactics officer assigned to an Army special operations unit and its Afghan partners. The commandos were operating that day in a completely denied area east of Kabul known to be sympathetic to the Taliban. Almost immediately after entering a village, the commando force came under fire from more than 100 highly trained insurgents hiding out in the mountains above. During the more than 10-hour battle, Crawford repeatedly put his life on the line to save his US and Afghan comrades. Two Afghans died and three others were severely wounded, but "given the skill and aggressiveness of this enemy," the casualties easily could have been higher, noted Schwartz in praising Crawford. Crawford said he was "deeply honored" and "extremely humbled" not only by the "magnitude of the award," but also by the overwhelming support he's received. He specifically acknowledged the handful of Army special forces soldiers who served with him that day who attended the ceremony. "This award is an individual award, but I consider it much more than that. It's our award," said Crawford. "Everyone was valiant. Everyone was heroic. Thank you so much for being my true friends, my brothers." Crawford also received a Purple Heart during the ceremony.

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Make Peace Within:

The Air Force's number one priority today ought to be "healing" the internal feud about proposed cuts across the active and reserve components, retired Gen. Ron Fogleman, ex Chief of Staff, told attendees of his Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies-sponsored talk in Arlington, Va., on Wednesday. These reductions would disproportionately affect the Air National Guard. "I understand you have to look at dwell time," said Fogleman. That's been the Air Force leadership's principle reason for apportioning the cuts as it has. But there are larger issues at stake, he said. Fogleman said he sits on a panel with the chief operating officers of the four largest airlines in the United States. "They tell me that within the next five to 10 years, there are going to be about 10,000 airline pilots retiring," he explained. He continued, "I think the United States Air Force is going to have a hell of a fight on its hands trying to retain pilots in that period of time." As a result, he said, "we're going into an era when we can't think about what is Active, what is Guard, and what is [Air Force] Reserve. We have to think total Air Force," said Fogleman. He noted, "we need friends and we need advocates. So we have to get over this internal fight."

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Environmental Study Out for First F-35 Operational Locations:

The Air Force filed the draft environmental impact statement for its first set of preferred operational basing locations for the F-35 strike fighter. Hill AFB, Utah, is the preferred Active Duty alternative and Burlington AGS, Vt., is the preferred Air National Guard location. However, the Air Force also is considering Jacksonville AGS, Fla.; McEntire JNGB, S.C.; Mountain Home AFB, Idaho; and Shaw AFB, S.C. "The Air Force is analyzing the impacts of basing three squadrons of 24 aircraft each at the active duty location and one squadron of 24 aircraft at the Air National Guard location," said Kathleen Ferguson, USAF's installations chief. The Air Force on April 13 announced the draft EIS' release. Service officials now will conduct 17 public hearings near potentially impacted communities through May to receive citizens' feedback. A final decision on the Active Duty base and ANG location is expected this fall. "We remain committed to the future of the F-35, which represents the future of tactical aviation for the Air Force," said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. Aircraft beddown would begin in 2015, according to the draft EIS executive summary

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Silver Star for Pave Hawk Pilot:

Maj. Charles McMullen, an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter pilot with the 41st Rescue Squadron at Moody AFB, Ga., received the Silver Star Medal for his gallantry under fire during a rescue mission near Nad E Ali, Afghanistan, in 2009. Gen. Mike Hostage, head of Air Combat Command, presented McMullen with the award during a ceremony at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., earlier this month. Then-Captain McMullen led a task force of two Pave Hawks and two British Apache helicopters that extracted two wounded British soldiers on Dec. 28, 2009, in the face of heavy insurgent ground fire. At one point during the mission, McMullen accelerated his HH-60 into the line of fire between the other Pave Hawk, now pinned down after recovering the first wounded Brit, providing a means of escape for it. "I figured if they started shooting at me, they weren't going to take out my wingman, who had no way to defend himself," recounted McMullen. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross last year for this same mission. The Silver Star award ceremony took place on April 3.

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Alcohol on the Job:

Testers recently ran the A-10's TF34 engine on a new synthetic fuel blend on a test stand at Barksdale AFB, La. Known as alcohol-to-jet, USAF's Alternative Fuels Certification Division is evaluating the blend of bio-derived butanol and standard JP-8 as part of its goal of cutting reliance on foreign-sourced petroleum. "If the engine's performance is comparable . . . the TF34 Engine Program Office will recommend to the AFCD that the fuel can be utilized for flight testing," explained engine specialist Andrew Abdinor. Pending positive results, an A-10 will fly a demonstration flight with the fuel at Eglin AFB, Fla., next month. "We are especially interested in the high-pressure turbine," said MSgt. William George, test-cell supervisor with Barksdale's 917th Fighter Group that is hosting the trials. "We pulled the hot section and will be looking for damage or wear to the parts, but the aft of the engine looks like it runs clean," summed George. The tests took place at the end of March.

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Squared Away:

The Air Force's honor guard won the hard-fought Joint Service Honor Guard Drill Competition at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. "I think this was one of the best performances I've seen from our guys in the last two years," said competition judge MSgt. Nathan Todd. USAF's drill team beat out honor guards from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine during the April 14 competition, an annual event. Despite breaking a drill rifle midway through the team's exhibition drill routine, "their bearing was not broken and their training propelled them to victory," added Todd. "We trained for anywhere from eight to 12 hours a day specifically for this," stressed honor guard member SrA. Christopher Martinez-Hernandez. "We put in a lot of hard work."

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Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz accepted a 30-inch replica of the 16-foot statue of the Air Force Honor Guard that sits at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va., April 13, 2012. Air Force Association leaders presented the statuette to Schwartz during a ceremony at the Pentagon that day. The statuette is now on display in the Chief's office. Here, Schwartz speaks after accepting the statuette as current honor guard members look on.

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Alaskan Raptors Debut New Ground-Attack Prowess in Training:

For the first time in training, F-22s dropped joint direct attack munitions on targets using self-generated coordinates enabled by the aircraft's new Increment 3.1 equipment and software upgrade. The aircraft, assigned to JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, "recently" demonstrated this new capability, said officials at the joint base on April 19. "The ability to drop weapons on self-generated coordinates is significant because it gives commanders the ability to task us against dynamic targets," said Lt. Col. Robert Davis, 90th Fighter Squadron director of operations. "The F-22 now has significantly more lethality, flexibility, and survivability in an anti-access, area-denial scenario," he added. During the week of training, the joint base's F-22s dropped a total of 20 JDAMs—eight live and 12 inert—over the Joint Alaska Pacific Range Complex. Before Increment 3.1, Raptors pilots had to rely on outside sources to locate targets and generate the coordinates to attack them. Before these training drills, Increment 3.1 JDAM drops had only occurred during test missions, said joint base officials

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Shepherding a Soul Lost:

Louisiana Air National Guard F-15Cs scrambled to intercept a light twin-engine aircraft that ultimately crashed into the Gulf of Mexico last week, according to Continental US NORAD officials at Tyndall AFB, Fla. After taking off from Slidell, La., headed for Sarasota, Fla., the private Cessna 421 strayed off course during its April 19 flight, orbiting erratically near a range area that is part of Eglin AFB, Fla., reported the Associated Press (via the Palm Beach Post). When air traffic controllers at Jacksonville, Fla., were unable to contact the Cessna, NORAD diverted the New Orleans-based 159th Fighter Wing F-15s, which were already airborne, to make contact. When the Cessna pilot did not respond, the fighters tracked the aircraft until it crashed into the Gulf, 180 miles off the Florida coast. The fighters remained on station until Coast Guard aircraft arrived to recover the pilot, who had not been found, as of April 22, and is presumed dead, according to press reports.

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C-17 Damaged in Afghanistan:

A joint-service and civilian team reopened the airstrip at Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province in eastern Afghanistan, removing a C-17 damaged in a recent landing mishap. "As soon as the aircraft overran the runway, we were looking at planning and how to recover the aircraft," said Maj. Mel Ibarreta, 777th Expeditionary Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force Squadron commander at FOB Shank, in an Army release on April 23. Touching down in foul weather, the C-17, assigned to the 437th Airlift Wing at JB Charleston, S.C., severely damaged its undercarriage, rendering it immobile, according to the release. After consultation with manufacturer Boeing, the engineering team prepped the aircraft to move it to a suitable repair pad. The team towed the C-17 more than a mile over a specially constructed "bridge" to prevent the massive airlifter from sinking into the soil. "We're really proud of having successfully moved the aircraft . . . as well as getting a C-17 back into the fleet," said FOB commander Army Lt. Col. Gilbert Mestler.

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End of the Advanced Cruise Missile:

Without fanfare, an excavator recently severed the fuselage of the Air Force's last AGM-129A Advanced Cruise Missile during a ceremony at Hill AFB, Utah. Destruction of this AGM-129 completed the demilitarization of this cruise missile type and associated trainers, components, and engines "within budget and ahead of schedule," according to an April 24 release from officials at Tinker AFB, Okla. Tinker's Missile Sustainment Division, along with Tinker's Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center and Hill's Ogden ALC, began the process of destroying the AGM-129 inventory—some 460 missiles—in February 2008. The Air Force had opted to eliminate the AGM-129 fleet as part of US efforts to draw down nuclear force levels to meet the cap of 2,200 operational nuclear warheads imposed by the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty with Russia. B-52H bombers carried the low-observable, subsonic cruise missiles.

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MiG-29 Mishap at Thracian Star Grounds Bulgarian Airplanes:

The Bulgarian air force terminated all of its flights on Thursday, April 26, after one of its MiG-29 fighters crashed in a training drill with US Air Force F-16s during Exercise Thracian Star, reported the Sofia News Agency, citing Bulgaria's Defense Minister Anyu Angelov. The MiG-29 reportedly went down in an unpopulated area near the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. The two pilots managed to bail out and were in good condition, according to the news agency. As a result of the crash, Bulgarian military aviation flights are on hold, except for emergencies, until the cause of the crash is known. An engine fire may have doomed the jet, said Bulgarian defense officials. The news agency said USAF F-16 flights will continue as part of Thracian Star, which began last week at Graf Ignatievo Air Base near Plovdiv and is scheduled to continue through May 11. The Air Force contingent of airmen and F-16s at the exercise is deployed from Aviano AB, Italy.

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The F-35 or Bust:

The Air Force simply can't do without the F-35 strike fighter, and buying new fourth generation fighters to maintain inventories is a bad solution to F-35 delays, said Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mike Hostage Thursday. He told a luncheon of AFA's D.W. Steele Chapter in Arlington, Va., that "beyond 2018, our fourth generation fleet can't fight without fifth generation fighters" to back them up and becoming an ever-larger share of the force. "We have a woefully tiny F-22 fleet, and we won't be getting any more," he continued, and the F-35 is "meeting all its parameters" for performance. After the "painful-agony-of-concurrency" problems have been shaken out, Hostage said he has no doubt the F-35 will be a world-beater. "I have every reason to believe" the F-35 will be up to the job, and do it better than any other aircraft, "but I need all 1700-plus," he said during his April 26 address. Without the F-35 in sufficient numbers, the F-15 and F-16 fleet "can't survive" the murderous environment of anti-access, aerial-denial systems no matter how tricked-out with upgrades they are, he said. The F-35 concurrency issue is "getting smaller" as fewer bugs are discovered in testing and fewer changes need to be made to the early production jets, but "it's a fact of life," said Hostage, and the same kind of issues plagued all previous fighters. He thinks the F-35 is doing better at this stage of production and test than any previous airplane, however.

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AEHF-2 Encapsulated, Launch Scheduled This Week:

Air Force space officials announced that AEHF-2, the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite, is now encapsulated in its launch fairing in preparation for its scheduled launch into orbit this week from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. The current launch date—barring inclement weather—is May 3, stated Space and Missile Systems Center officials on April 27. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will carry the satellite aloft. SMC said engineers at Astrotech Space Operations' facility in Titusville, Fla., completed the encapsulation procedure on April 21. "The second AEHF spacecraft will provide greater connectivity, flexibility, and control to US and international partner forces," said Col. Michael Sarchet, AEHF program manager. He added, "The AEHF constellation will augment and replace the venerable Milstar constellation, improving on many capabilities to include 10 times greater throughput."