A transgender airman and his financée, a transgender soldier, will attend Wednesday’s LGBT Pride Month reception. Both Senior Airman Logan Ireland and Army Cpl. Laila Villanueva were the subject of the recent documentary “Transgender, at War and in Love,” directed and produced by Fiona Dawson. The Air Force has been supportive of Ireland’s decision to serve as an openly transgender airman. He will attend Wednesday’s event in a male dress blue uniform. “Being invited to the White House as an actively serving transgender airman is one of the most humbling experiences of my life so far,” Ireland said in a…
Browsing: Air Force
F35s from the 61st Fighter Squadron refuel near Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. (Air Force photo)
The Air Force’s main F-35 pilot training base this month activated another squadron of the next-generation stealth aircraft. The 62nd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, stood up earlier this month during an assumption of command ceremony on June 5. Lt. Col. Gregory Frana, previously the F-35A director of operations for the 61st Fighter Squadron at Luke, will command the new unit. The squadron will begin receiving jets next month, and will train alongside pilots from Norway and Italy. “We will focus our efforts on what we’ve been doing for three generations – training and delivering combat…
A burned F-35A sits on the flightline at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on June 23, 2014.
Air Education and Training Command today released a full investigation into last year’s F-35 mishap that caused one of the jets, tail number 10-5015, to be almost completely destroyed by fire during takeoff at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The investigation board found that part of an engine rotor broke free during takeoff, cutting through the fan’s case, engine bay, internal fuel tank and hydraulic fluid lines. The fuel and hydraulic fluid ignited, causing a fire that burned the rear two-thirds of the aircraft. The pilot was able to abort the language and exit the aircraft, and emergency responders extinguished the…
Lt. Gen. Jack L. Rives, Air Force judge advocate general, pins the Meritorious Service Medal on Col. Lindsey Graham in a Pentagon ceremony April 28, 2009. In addition to being a U.S. senator from South Carolina, Colonel Graham is an individual mobilization augmentee and the senior instructor at the Air Force JAG School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, is hanging up his Air Force blues. Graham, who has served as a judge advocate general in the Air Force Reserves since 1995 and had previously been on both active duty and the South Carolina Air National Guard, is turning 60 this summer, and hitting the mandatory retirement age. “Although I would cherish the opportunity to continue to serve, I know that the time has come for me to end my service and transfer to the retired reserves,” Graham, a colonel and senior individual mobilization augmentee to the judge advocate general, said in a statement…
Staff Sgt. Michael Ensminger, 61st Aircraft Maintenance Unit Staff F-35 dedicated crew chief inspects one of Luke’s 10 F-35s sent to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada for the training deployment April 15, 2015. (Staff Sgt. Darlene Seltmann/Air Force)
Ten F-35s flew from their training site at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, for two weeks this month in the first test of how the jets, pilots and maintainers could move and operate from a new base. This first training “deployment” tested half of Luke’s fleet at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, from April 4-18. “Operating away from Luke has been a huge success for the wing, Team Nellis and the F-35 program in general,” Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, the commander of the 56th Figher Wing, in a news release. “We are learning lessons that will be hugely important for our pilots…
Maj. Gen. Stayce D. Harris, Commander, 22nd Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command, at Nationals Park on April 16, 2015 to be recognized during the Washington Nationals Black Heritage Night. (Jennifer Milbrett/Staff)
To celebrate the Air Force Reserve’s birthday and black heritage day in Major League Baseball, the Air Force sent out an airmen who represents both. Maj. Gen. Stayce Harris, commander of 22nd Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, presented the first pitch at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., to commemorate her service, the command and diversity both in the Air Force and out. “They asked would I be willing to help celebrate the Air Force Reserve’s 67th birthday at a Nationals game? I said ‘Of course I would, I would be honored,” Harris said.…
Meet the new characters of "Terminal Airman."
The creator of the wildly popular “Terminal Lance” web comic has decided to “jump branches” and portray life in the Air Force instead of the Marine Corps. Marine veteran Maximilian Uriarte announced on Facebook Wednesday that “Terminal Airman” will debut next week. The move marks a radical shift for the comic formerly known as “Terminal Lance,” which appears weekly in Marine Corps Times. Until now, Uriarte has focused on aspects of the Marine Corps that make the service stand out from the rest of the military – such as the Corps’ trademarked “knife hands” move, which retired Gen. James Mattis…
An F-35 flies over Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, on the 1,000th sortie for the base. (Senior Airman Devante Williams/Air Force)
The first operational training base for the F-35A this week hit a new milestone: 1,000 flights. Maj. Joshua Arki, 61st Fighter Squadron instructor pilot, on Tuesday flew the 1,000th sortie at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. It is now the fastest wing to reach 1,000 sorties in the F-35, according to the Air Force. The flight occurred about one month before the first official class of student pilots is set to get started at the training center on base. The milestone was the second in a week at the base. Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, commander of the 56th Fighter Wing, flew…
Maintainers begin post-flight checks on the first Lot 1 production model QF-16 after it arrived at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., March 11. (Air Force photo)
The first production drone version of the F-16 has touched down at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, and will get ready for its demise. On March 11, the first production version of the QF-16 aerial targeting drone landed at the base. The aircraft has been in testing to eventually replace the legacy QF-4 Phantom aerial target. “Today culminates five years of hard work and dedication beginning with a development program, completing a rigorous test and evaluation phase that has ultimately led to the first operational delivery of the QF-16,” said Michele Hafers, director, test and training division at Eglin Air…
When a lack of English comprehension among Afghan pilots led to hazardous traffic in the skies over Jalalabad, a group of airmen responded by sending the pilots to the classroom. A group of Air Force Train, Assist, Advice, Command Air Advisors stationed at the base this month created a weeklong aviation English course specifically for Afghan pilots to help them communicate better. In January and February, miscommunication led to 19 hazardous traffic reports at the base. “[The situation] presented a major collision hazard to the US and NATO helicopters and fixed wing traffic that flows in and out each day,”…
