Scott Fontaine

$1 trillion and counting

By Scott Fontaine on June 22, 2011 Uncategorized

Everywhere senior military officials speak, one topic tends to keep coming up again and again: money. Everyone expects the Defense Department’s budget to shrink in the coming years. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already unveiled a plan to slow the rate of growth in the Pentagon budget. Lawmakers in Washington argue over how to best cut the deficit and reduce the debt. For the Air Force, this will almost certainly mean doing more with less. Fewer aircraft. Less people. Older equipment. With that in mind, Bloomberg had a good reminder of where a lot of the money has been going…

Go big or go home. No, seriously, go home.

By Scott Fontaine on June 17, 2011 Uncategorized

I knew I shouldn’t have hit my Idi Amin photo quota so early in the week. Check out the fruit salad on this guy, as spotted by the This Ain’t Hell blog. I’d try to count how many ribbons he’s wearing (in addition to the Parachutist Badge and the Air Assualt Badge and the Combat Infantryman Badge and…), but I think my calculator would melt down. Check out some of the comments: USMC Steve: “Army as well as Air Force gongs and badges, but the boots are just a fashion faux pas.” TSO: “15 rows of medals, dude could kill…

And guess who provides the email servers

By Scott Fontaine on June 17, 2011 Uncategorized

Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates took some outgoing-defense-secretaryish shots at NATO last week. Among the shots at the trans-Atlantic alliance: It’s “two-tiered” and faces “a dim, if not dismal future.” And then there was this zinger: “The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress — and in the American body politic writ large — to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense,” he said.” Harsh words. So…

Chaplains help raise a cool quarter-mil for Japan

By Scott Fontaine on June 16, 2011 Uncategorized

The Air Force responded in a big way when an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan in March. The service sent cargo jets full of relief supplies, provided use of its radiation-sniffing aircraft and provided footage of the disaster scene from an RQ-4 Global Hawk. The chaplains also passed the hat to raise money for earthquake victims and came up with more than $250,000, according to a news release. The money went to emergency-aid organizations like the American Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services and Samaritan’s Purse. “The generosity of airmen and their families has been and is a constant reminder that…

Don’t bother claiming eight Silver Stars…

By Scott Fontaine on June 14, 2011 Uncategorized

So you’re the SEAL who shot bin Laden, eh? Good pickup line for the ladies at the local Dam Neck bar, but probably not the truth. Or maybe those two Bronze Stars become two Silver Stars, or a Air Force Cross magically appears on your rack. Either way, be warned: If you try to claim too much, there’s a good chance you’ll eventually get caught. And the Washington Post has a story today about some of the people who work their damndest to make sure fakers are exposed. One of the people they quoted? Doug Sterner, the curator of the…

Delaware to Bagram, via the North Pole

By Scott Fontaine on June 13, 2011 Uncategorized

Think of it as the scenic route to Afghanistan – and one that can save you a few days at home. A C-5M flying from the Delaware to Bagram Air Base flew nonstop in a route that took the Super Galaxy over the U.S., Canada, the Arctic, Russia and Kyrgystan – the first time in Air Force history such a route has been used, according to the service. (This is the part where usually someone would make a joke about a C-5A breaking down halfway through the mission, stranding its crew somewhere near the North Pole.) The mission was a…

To catch a (snowmobiling) predator (two time zones away)

By Scott Fontaine on June 9, 2011 Uncategorized

Last December, Air Force Times received an email upset that we reported the arrest of retired Maj. Reinaldo Canton. Canton was arrested in April 2007 on suspicion of meeting a 14-year-old girl he met online at a mall in Layton, Utah. The “girl?” Actually an FBI agent. Prosecutors dropped coercion and enticement charges against Canton in May 2009 because he had a serious heart condition, according to local media reports. The Utah Attorney General’s Office picked up the case that June after getting a second medical opinion. And then nothing happened for a couple of years. We received an email…

Good morning, Vietnam. Good night, Fargo.

By Scott Fontaine on June 7, 2011 Uncategorized

One of the last airmen to serve in the Vietnam War retired over the weekend. Chief Master Sgt. James Clemenson served as a door gunner on an Army UH-1 Huey on two tours in the early 1970s. He left the Army in 1972 and joined the North Dakota Air National Guard the next year. Clemenson worked in aircraft maintenance and later for an alert detachment and the NGB’s counter-narcotics division. He has been the senior enlisted manager for the National Guard Bureau joint staff since 2007. It’s unclear how many Vietnam vets remain in the ranks. Clemenson was the last…

Chicken feet, bloody canings and night-vision goggles

By Scott Fontaine on June 6, 2011 Uncategorized

Just remember to smile when you’re chewing the fish head. The public affairs folks at Air Force Special Operations command had an interesting piece about Raven Claw, a week-long exercise at Duke Field, Fla., that helps deploying advisors tackle situations they might face. The trainees are dropped into “Palmetto Land” to enhance the country with the tactical employment of its aircraft, which the Palmettoites (Palmettitonians? Palmeteors?) will use to fight an insurgency. The 371st Special Operations Combat Training Squadron conducts the exercise. “The SOF combat aviation advisor environment is one in which a country is teetering on full-out civil…

Author Scott Fontaine