Photos

A B-52H Stratofortress takes off during Exercise Combat Hammer at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Feb. 9, 2016. (Airman 1st Class J.T. Armstrong/Air Force)

B-52s drop bombs in Florida for exercise Combat Hammer

By Oriana Pawlyk on February 11, 2016 Air Force, Airframes, Global Strike Command, Photos

At a time when B-52 heavy bombers are frequent flyers over the Korean peninsula (see: North Korea shenanigans) it’s nice to know that they’re keeping ready. Six B-52 Stratofortresses from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, took part in Exercise Combat Hammer, an annual air-to-ground combat training exercise which tests bombing capability, according to a release from Minot. “We exercise to ensure we are able to hit a target that the Air Force tells us to hit, with weapons they tell us to use, at a time they want it to be hit,” Maj. Ryan Cox, 5th Operations Support Squadron chief of wing…

Blood moon over the Air Force Memorial

By Stephen Losey on October 8, 2014 Photos

This morning’s lunar eclipse — which produced a coppery-red effect known as a “blood moon” — brought out skygazers of all kinds. Among them was pilot, former Air Force contractor, and amateur photographer Joseph Gruber, who snapped this outstanding photo of the blood moon hovering over the Air Force Memorial. Gruber, who is also a first lieutenant with the Civil Air Patrol, said he was trying to find some high ground to snap a good shot of the eclipse in the Crystal City, Va., area where he lives. He realized Long Bridge Park, on the Potomac River, would provide a…

Happy 67th birthday, Air Force!

By Oriana Pawlyk on September 18, 2014 Air Force, Photos

Storm flips F-16 in Davis-Monthan boneyard

By Brian Everstine on July 16, 2014 Air Force, Airframes, Photos

Severe winds Sunday caused a retired F-16 to briefly take to the air again at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, boneyard this week. Winds recorded at about 65 mph miles per hour hit the boneyard, where retired aircraft sit in storage, and flipped lightweight F-16 flipped onto another Falcon. The steel cable tie-downs that were used to secure the aircraft snapped due to the high winds. The jet had recently had its engine removed, which made it light enough to go airborne, according to a base news release. The base lost power at about 7 p.m. Sunday night. Civil…

This week in history

By Oriana Pawlyk on June 24, 2014 Air Force, History, Pentagon, Photos, Space

Reviewing history in the military, the Air Force and triumphs and misadventures in airpower. On June 24, 1997, the Air Force released “The Roswell Report, Case Closed,” stating there was no evidence that any kind of life form was found in the Roswell, New Mexico, area in connection with the reported UFO sightings that occurred decades prior. When Americans began to focus on the skies in the 1940s, Roswell became a hot topic in the UFO department. It started when rancher “Mac” Brazel found debris scattered over some of his land in July 1947. According to History.com, he “turned the material…

“Here’s why” of the week

By Oriana Pawlyk on November 13, 2013 Here's Why, History, Photos

Taking our “Here’s Why” from the paper to the blog. An explanation for why something is the way it is in the Air Force/military. Back by popular demand, this “Here’s Why” ran in the Oct. 8, 2012 issue of Air Force Times, with a few additions: When frustrated with another person, you may be inclined to throw up one of the most famous gestures of all time, otherwise known as “flipping the bird.” Skepticism remains about its origin, but scholars and historians say it actually has a military ancestry. In “Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law,” author and…

American Veterans Center honors Doolittle Raiders with accompanying toast

By Oriana Pawlyk on November 12, 2013 Air Force, Award, History, Photos, Veterans, Video, Washington

By Oriana Pawlyk and wire reports As three of the four remaining Doolittle Raiders honored one another with a toast Saturday, Nov. 9, veterans, active-duty members, family and friends toasted to the Raiders’ last gathering at the American Veterans Center annual awards gala in Washington, D.C. The 80 men who risked their lives on a World War II bombing mission on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor were honored in Ohio with a wreath laying ceremony and a B-25 flyover that morning, followed by the toast at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Hennessy donated 48 bottles…

Time-lapse video gives a glimpse into Hawaiian Air Force observatory

By Oriana Pawlyk on November 7, 2013 Photos, Space, Technology, Video

This time-lapse video takes you on a two minute journey through the changing Hawaiian landscape, but also into galaxies beyond our reach. It’s centered around the Maui Space Surveillance Complex, where the Air Force operates the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep-Space Surveillance Network, or GEODSS, says Tanya Basu at National Geographic. GEODSS maintains one highly important job: to make sure satellites don’t collide. The video was produced by Andrew Breese and photographed by Tech Sgt. Bennie Davis for Airman Magazine, the official magazine of the Air Force. Read more about what it takes to monitor these satellites, the inspiration behind this beautiful video…

AFSOC airman welcomed home with unique corn maze

By Oriana Pawlyk on November 7, 2013 Air Force, Photos

Any welcome home gesture can take you by surprise, especially when the token of appreciation is a 2 ½ acre corn maze. Staff Sgt. Charles Snover, 23rd Special Tactics Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., came home to this whopping sign etched into a corn field in Allamuchy, N.J. It reads, “Welcome home Chuck” and then “Above all” with the American flag underneath. In place of the 50 stars was the Air Force emblem. “I was blown away! I thought it was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me,” Snover said in an email to Air Force…

“Here’s why” of the week

By Oriana Pawlyk on October 29, 2013 Here's Why, History, Photos

Taking our “Here’s Why” from the paper to the blog. An explanation for why something is the way it is in the Air Force/military. Sharpshooter: a marksman, or one skilled in shooting. This label has carried through each war, even into present day. The term became well-known for Alexander Gardner’s photograph, “Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter,” photographed in July 1863 (right). The image depicts a man lying dead between two rocks. “The sharpshooter had evidently been wounded in the head by a fragment of shell which had exploded over him, and had laid down upon his blanket to await death,”…

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