Air Education and Training Command

F35s from the 61st Fighter Squadron refuel near Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. (Air Force photo)

Luke stands up new F-35 squadron

By Brian Everstine on June 22, 2015 Air Education and Training Command, Air Force

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 Force releases images of burned F-35A

By Brian Everstine on June 8, 2015 Air Education and Training Command, Air Force, Airframes

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…

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)

F-35s complete training ‘deployment’ for first time

By Brian Everstine on April 21, 2015 Air Education and Training Command, 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…

An F-35 flies over Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, on the 1,000th sortie for the base. (Senior Airman Devante Williams/Air Force)

Luke F-35 squadron hits 1,000 sorties

By Brian Everstine on April 1, 2015 Air Education and Training Command, Air Force, Airframes

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…

Blast from 2009: MTI says airmen in better shape than Marines

By Jeff Schogol on March 9, 2015 Air Education and Training Command, BMT, PT, Recruiting, Uncategorized

An old Air Force recruiting video in which a military instructor claims trainees are in better shape than most Marines just won’t go away. The Air Force removed the video from its website in 2009, but it in the world of social media, nothing really dies, so it was recently resurrected on Facebook. The 57-second video of trainees exercising is narrated by an unnamed elite “blue rope” military training instructor, who says that a common misconception is that the Air Force has the easiest PT standards of the military services. “Actually, we are the hardest when it comes the PT…

Officer: Don’t drink and climb trees…and stay safe

By Oriana Pawlyk on November 13, 2014 Air Education and Training Command, Air Force, Air Force Academy

This officer may not have been arrested, but he suffered a) a blow to his ego and b) 25 broken bones. 2nd Lt. Stephen Hunter recently recalled for Air Education and Training Command’s Torch Magazine a misfit move he pulled back in May 2012 when he was an incoming senior at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Hunter woke up to paramedics trying to treat his mangled body. The cadet, who had been drinking rum and Cokes since noon, thought it’d be a good idea to climb nearly 40 feet up a 110-foot cottonwood tree at 2 a.m. Until he fell.…

Officer Training School graduates first total force class

By Oriana Pawlyk on October 21, 2014 Air Education and Training Command, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, PME

The first class to graduate from the new-and-improved Officer Training School marked a second celebration: they are the first class to graduate active duty, Reserve and Guard officer trainees at the same time. The first class of FY 2015 graduated 193 new 2nd lieutenants on Oct. 10, consisting of 73 active duty and 12 Reserve members completing Basic Officer Training and 108 ANG officers completing the Academy of Military Science, according to an Air Force release. This is the first time both active duty and reserve component officers simultaneously ran through the new eight week curriculum. The OTS curriculum was shortened…

CCAF graduates largest class ever

By Oriana Pawlyk on October 7, 2014 Air Education and Training Command, Uncategorized

The Community College of the Air Force has hit a milestone. CCAF graduated its largest class to date, according to an Air Education and Training Command release. CCAF graduated 23,160 members in 2014 with the help of the October class: 13,042 members earned their Associate of Applied Science degrees this month. That’s a bump from last year — the college graduated 20,271 members in fiscal 2013, Michael Ritz, spokesman for the 42nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, told Air Force Times. But graduating students in the thousands every year comes as no surprise, writes Airman 1st…

First general officer qualifies in the F-35A

By Brian Everstine on October 2, 2014 Air Combat Command, Air Education and Training Command, Air Force

The first general officer has completed qualification training in the F-35A. Maj. Gen. Jay Silveria, commander of the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, completed the training on Sept. 26 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Silveria topped off the seven-week training regimen with five hours of flying in two back-to-back sorties along with a hot pit refuel. “The Warfare Center is so involved with the development and future of this aircraft that it was important for me to see and experience this new program at the lowest tactical level and bring that knowledge base back to the higher level strategic…

Four airmen save father of three from drowning

By Oriana Pawlyk on July 7, 2014 Air Education and Training Command, Air Force

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…

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