Imagine you’re the chief master sergeant of the Air Force. You land in Baghdad, bend over to tie your shoes and realize that your body armor is missing its rank patch. What a faux pas! What are airmen gonna think? But there’s no need to worry. The PX near the Al Faw Palace — just a short drive from the airport — has even the Air Force’s top enlisted guy covered, according to Stars and Stripes.
Author Scott Fontaine
So Col. Muammar Gadhafi hasn’t been captured (and it looks like his son, Saif, might not ever have been), but it’s not too early to look at the role NATO jets played in toppling the Libyan government. On Aug. 20, the day rebels first stormed Tripoli, NATO jets struck 22 targets inside the capital: three military facilities, one military storage facility, seven surface-to-air missile transloaders, one radar, one surface-to-surface missile, two armed vehicles, two armored fighting vehicles, three command-and-control nodes and two multiple rocket launchers. And that’s just the latest round. Since NATO took over operations on March 31, the alliance…
Who needs boots on the ground when you have Taiwanese animators? Next Media Animation, which made its name with a little ditty on Tiger Woods’, umm, domestic issues, has unveiled a new piece about Libyan rebels entering the capital, Tripoli. And while I’m never met Col. Gadhafi himself, I gotta imagine the part where is eyes are on fire and steam flies from his ears are pretty true to form.
So how well are things going in the United States’ third war? Well, months of operating a no-fly zone over the no-fly zone, sanctions, interdicting ships entering port, striking at government forces and overall just supporting the rebellion has really started to put the heat on leader Moammar Gadhafi. And while some people might be following the news, how well do you know the geography? Do you know your Azzawiyas from your Sirtes? Well, we’ve got a pretty neat map showing how bleak things look for the Gadhafi government. Iyad El-Baghdadi — who identifies himself as an “entrepreneur, Austrian economist,…
A pararescueman from the Alaska Air National Guard’s 212th Rescue Squadron jumps from a Coast Guard C-130 during training June 23 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Jack Sanders)
One* of the men who wants to be your next commander-in-chief is touting his Air Force experience. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been stumping across Iowa lately. He proudly presents his conservative bona fides: He loves guns (and packs heat while jogging). He really doesn’t like same-sex marriage. He likes pardoning death-row criminals even less. He also likes to tell voters about his military service: He earned a commission in the Air Force, became a C-130 pilot and left four years later as a captain.** That experience provides one reason why Perry wants to unseat President Barack Obama next November.…
If it’s not rule No. 1 about protesting, it should be: You gotta know the topic. Take yesterday’s talk on unmanned systems at the National Press Club. Participants included representatives from the Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk program, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, iRobot and QinetiQ. The four talked mostly about more peaceful uses for drones, like helping the Japanese during the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and providing aerial video of wildfires. As the panelists wrapped up their presentations and us news hacks in attendance prepared to ask inside-baseball questions about Global Hawk procurement, one of…
Call it Fridays with Leon. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta works in Washington. His home is in California. That’s a lot of flyover country in between, and Panetta has stopped off at Air Force bases the past two weeks to shake hands, answer questions and pose for photos with the troops. He stopped by Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., on July 29. His “stay was brief and the group small,” according to a news release. Next Friday, the Doomsday Plane landed at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. Panetta stopped by U.S. Strategic Command headquarters and met with the honchos there. So…
Air Forces Central has a new commander – and because of the high-profile nature of the gig, it’s time for a round of Air Force bar trivia! Here are a few factoids you need to know about Lt. Gen. David Goldfein: ● He will be in command of a 20-country region that stretches from Egypt to Pakistan. ● He majored in philosophy at the Air Force Academy. ● He was the last pilot to complete qualification training in the F-117, ● He was also the first general officer to fly the MQ-9 Reaper. ● Goldfein was flying an F-16 over…
The guys from Altus Air Force Base returned to Oklahoma last week with some major bragging rights. The 97th Air Mobility Wing took back the top prize at the 2011 Rodeo, Air Mobility Command’s bienniel skills competition. The 97th took home another nine trophies, too, which must have made the trip to Joint Base Lewis-McChord especially sweet. The Rodeo, for those who might not know, is AMC’s biggest to-do. It draws teams from across the world to compete in everything from airdrops to financial management. Here’s a list of winners from this year’s competition: Best Air Mobility Wing: 97th Air…
