Six F-16 fighter jets and 120 personnel from the 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy, will begin a joint training operation Thursday at Lask Air Base, Poland, through Oct. 8, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren announced Sept. 3. In addition to Air Force units headed to the Baltics, members from the 31st FW will also participate in Ample Strike, a NATO-led exercise with 11 other nations in the Czech Republic. Farther east, Rapid Trident — the first exercise to include 200 U.S. ground troops since the Kiev government began fighting pro-Russian separatists — will take place Sept. 15 to Sept.…
Author Oriana Pawlyk
Canada this week adopted a great sense of humor along with its Burger King takeover. @CanadaNATO tweeted this photo for the Russian soldiers stationed at the Russia-Ukraine border: Reuters reported Wednesday that Russian soldiers have been traveling into Ukraine “by mistake.” But who among us hasn’t accidentally refused to stop and ask for directions and ended up in a war zone…wearing a uniform of an enemy combatant? Right? No? The Kiev government said they had been on a ‘special mission’ “linked to the pro-Russian separatist rebellions in the east,” the report said. The flow of weapons and armored vehicles into…
Colonel Bernard Fisher, awarded the Medal of Honor in 1967, died over the weekend in Idaho, KBOI 2News reports. He was 87. Fisher was first to receive the Air Force designed Medal of Honor, which was established on April 14, 1965 (The first Medal of Honor received by an airman was awarded to Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker for aerial combat in 1918). President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the award to then-Maj. Fisher for risking his life to save a fellow pilot shot down during action in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam in 1966. Fisher, who volunteered to go to Vietnam, “landed his Douglas…
1st Lt. Jasmine Alexander may not have pinned on a star, but she definitely won the crown. Alexander, an Air Force intelligence officer stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, was crowned “Miss Black USA” on July 10 in a pageant at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., according to The Gazette (Colorado Springs). She also recently won Miss Black Colorado USA 2014. The Miss Black U.S.A. Pageant and Scholarship Foundation, Inc., awarded Alexander, 26, a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to Africa, the newspaper said, and Alexander will fulfill her pageant duties by promoting the Heart Truth campaign, which raises awareness about…
Nevada is often associated with its desert climate, but this summer, the state has seen quite a bit of high water. Flash floods have impacted parts of the state, damaging homes and turning roads into current-heavy rivers. And that’s what prompted Tech Sgt. Adam Dixon, Staff Sgt. James Maxwell and Airman 1st Class Christopher Fitzgerald, all members of the 820th RED HORSE, Nellis Air Force Base, to act on Aug. 4 when they saw an elderly couple trapped in the water. The three airmen and three members of the 799th Air Base Squadron, Creech Air Force Base, helped rescue the…
Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen released a statement Wednesday on Russia’s alleged violation of the 1988-enforced Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, stating that Russia must now work “constructively to resolve this critical Treaty issue.” “The United States has briefed the North Atlantic Council on its determination that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” the statement read. The Russian Foreign Ministry released a…
A military base in Poland could soon be repurposed to support NATO in its mission to reassure eastern European allies of its oversight amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict. NATO’s top commander in Europe, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, told a briefing in Naples this week that he plans to recommend “having capability in the forward area — preposition supplies, preposition capabilities, and a basing area ready to rapidly accept follow on forces.” “How we man that in a rotational, or non-permanent, basis is what are we looking at now to propose in NATO, and we will be working on that with…
Four airmen were at the right place at the right time when a father of three children was caught by a strong current in the Buttahatchee River in Caledonia, Mississippi, over Memorial Day weekend. Staff Sgt. Joshua Keith, Airman 1st Class Kyle Carpenter, Senior Airman Ryan Werner and Staff Sgt. Alexander Gordy, all part of the 14th Operations Support Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base, helped save and revive a father who jumped in after his three children, according to a news release. The children’s grandfather also jumped in to help, but after struggling with the current, was unable to be revived…
