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8/11/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- During a 24-hour shift that began at 7 a.m. on Aug. 7, an Air Force surgeon treated 18 patients with injuries that varied from a crushed foot and multiple improvised explosive device penetrations to gunshot wounds through the thigh and head. For Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Steve Barnes, the surgeon of the day, this meant nine operations, five of which were performed on Americans, three on Iraqis and one insurgent. "I volunteered to come to Balad for both personal and professional reasons," said the trauma surgeon instructor based at Cincinnati's University Hospital in...

8/8/2006 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) -- At first glance, he looks like any other Air Force pilot: olive-green flight suit, polished boots and a bluish-gray flight cap with rank insignia prominently displayed. On closer inspection, you realize the little differences. His shoulder boards don't feature bars or leaves, but instead a combination of blue and gray stripes. When you hear him speak, his distinct accent tells you this is no ordinary Air Force pilot. Royal Air Force Squadron Leader David Arthurton is a pilot with the 13th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, flying the B-2 Spirit bomber with the...

As prices at the pump continue to rise, drivers are always looking for new solutions for savings. The use of nitrogen is rising in popularity in the Bay area and costs less than a tank of gas. "Fuel savings for an automobile is the highest priority right now, I think," Olin Mott Tires President Rick Mott said. "One of the advantages of nitrogen, of course, is the fuel savings." Race car drivers and airlines have been using it for decades and so are an estimated 10 percent of tire shops around the country. Auto experts said nitrogen is retained in...

8/1/2006 - CORALVILLE, Iowa (AFPN) -- Tears don’t fall lightly from a colonel, especially in front of more than 120 other Airmen. But when Col. John Clarke presented Pamela Vineyard a plaque, representing a weeklong bike ride across the state of Iowa, the tears were evidence of the inspiring and amazing example of her strength and character. Her strength and character were tested, along with 101 other Air Force cyclists and 10,000 others in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI, a more than 450-mile bike ride spanning a week. It had been more than 20 years...

QANA, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israel has agreed to suspend airstrikes on southern Lebanon for 48 hours to investigate a Sunday airstrike that killed more than 60 people in Qana, Lebanon, a U.S. State Department spokesman said. Spokesman Adam Ereli said the Israelis reserve the right to take action against targets preparing attacks against it during the 48-hour period, but the bombing halt should "significantly speed and improve the flow of humanitarian aid." Israeli officials also agreed to allow safe passage for 24 hours for residents of southern Lebanon to leave the region. Israel earlier said it mistakenly destroyed a four-story...

One way to curb global warming is to purposely shoot sulfur into the atmosphere, a scientists suggested today. The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. It also releases sulfur that cools the planet by reflecting solar radiation away from Earth. Injecting sulfur into the second atmospheric layer closest to Earth would reflect more sunlight back to space and offset greenhouse gas warming, according to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. Crutzen suggests carrying sulfur...

Dallas Air Traffic Controller Dallas ATC: "Tower to Saudi Air 911 -- You are cleared to land eastbound on runway 9R." Saudi Air: "Thank you Dallas ATC. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be Praised !!" Dallas ATC: "Tower to Iran Air 822 -- You are cleared to land westbound on runway 9R." Iran Air: "Thank you Dallas ATC. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R. - Allah is Great !!" Pause: Static............. Saudi Air: "DALLAS ATC! DALLAS ATC!!!" Dallas ATC: "Go ahead Saudi Air 911?" Saudi Air: "YOU HAVE CLEARED BOTH OUR AIRCRAFT...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2006 – Air Force C-17 Globemaster III crews assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron operating in Southwest Asia have added another mission to their resume, providing humanitarian civil assistance to the effort to evacuate Americans from Lebanon. Airlift operations have responded quickly to the urgent needs in the Middle East, supporting U.S. citizens evacuating from Lebanon to Cyprus, U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials said. The 816th EAS is flying water and meals, as well as essential personnel and equipment, to Royal Air Force Base Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. In the first four...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A 14-year-old who was sucked to the bottom of a hotel hot tub and kept under water for at least seven minutes was likely saved by air his father breathed into his mouth during the ordeal. Aljuwon Pipkin, who was visiting Walt Disney World from New Jersey, became stuck at the bottom of the hot tub last Thursday at the Radisson Parkway Hotel. Officials said a grate at the bottom of the tub apparently broke and created a strong suction that pulled the teen underwater. Click here to find out more! Pipkin's father was at the pool...

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2006 – A contracted ship has docked in Lebanon to evacuate U.S. citizens caught in the fighting there, and U.S. officials have ordered the expeditionary strike group based around the USS Iwo Jima to assist in the effort, DoD officials said here today. DoD contracted a Greek ocean liner, the Orient Queen, to evacuate American citizens from Beirut, and that vessel has docked, a senior DoD official told reporters. The liner can hold up to 750 people for the five-hour voyage to Cyprus, an island nation in the western Mediterranean. In addition, six CH-53 helicopters -- three...

Outsiders often view SEALs as supermen. Perhaps they are in the sense of infused commitment to both achieving the objective and never quitting. But ordinary, according to insiders, in the sense that they are just highly trained men doing extraordinary things. “Definitely not Supermen, my classmates particularly,” says Worthington. “One guy, however, could hold his breath five minutes. Another was a two-pack-a-day smoker who still survived BUDS. “BUDS, incidentally, is between your ears. Sure, you have to make times on the O-Course [obstacle course], the four-mile run, etc., but the kid who sticks in there, survives. It’s a mindset of...

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Cody Nelson (left), with the 28th Security Forces Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., and Senior Airman Brandon Alsop (right), with the 151st Security Forces Squadron, Utah Air National Guard, practice firing the MK19 machine gun. U.S. Air Force courtesy photo Air Force Security Forces Complete Tour in Iraq For the last six months Contingency Operating Base Speicher has been kept safe and secure by the outstanding work of Air Force security forces. Sgt. Waine D. Haley 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, July 12, 2006 -- For the last six months Contingency...

"I honestly don’t remember ever being afraid,” Command Sergeant Major Gary L. Littrell (U.S. Army, ret.) says, recalling a fierce four-day, four-night battle he led against a numerically superior enemy force that had surrounded his battalion and was hell-bent on destroying it. “I just remember being very, very angry, because all of sudden — from the first mortar round that killed one of my best friends and seriously wounded several others — there was this nonstop fighting that lasted for days where the enemy was killing my soldiers. The effect it had on me was extreme anger.”

'"No Southern man is complete without a tenure under military rule." That one sentence penned by author Pat Conroy in his best-selling novel The Lords of Discipline , is utter truth spoken to the heart of any Southern boy or man. It does not mean all Southern men serve, have served, or will serve their country. But it does mean that deep down in the well of the soul of the Southern American male there is a sense of duty and martial responsibility that cries out to be acted upon. I’ve chosen Southerners as an example, because I am Southern....

Condi and Sergei air differences over an open microphone By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow (Filed: 01/07/2006) Condoleezza Rice, America's secretary of state, is famed for her sang froid but one person seems to be able to rattle her - Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. The pair are known to have goaded each other on several occasions, reflecting the souring relationship between Washington and Moscow. However, a candid conversation between the pair was revealed to the world when a technician failed to switch off an audio feed during a closed-door lunch at a meeting of foreign ministers in Moscow. For...

6/27/2006 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- The U.S. military has turned to an old workhorse as the delivery method for supplies and humanitarian cargo needed to sustain Operation Enduring Freedom. The C-130 Hercules has been around, in one form or another, since the 1950s. It is the aircraft of choice for inter-theater airlift in Afghanistan, where the U.S. Army is conducting operations from areas located on some of the toughest terrain on the planet. The last time "Herc" crews flew combat airdrops at this level was the Vietnam War. "It's the perfect tool to use in this theater,"...

AL ASAD, Iraq (June 26, 2006) -- The thumping of helicopter blades beats over the noise made by service members scrambling to help a wounded person, and as the sound becomes clearer, they look up and see the dark silhouettes of two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters drifting in to land. Smoke is popped and the 'Angels of Mercy' with the Army's 82nd Medical Company descend from the sky to take the injured to a hospital located safely inside the perimeter of Al Asad. The mission of the soldiers with the 82nd Medical Company is to provide aero medical evacuation operations throughout...

6/23/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- It was around 10 p.m. on June 25, 1996, when Staff Sgt. Alfredo Guerrero went to check the security post on the rooftop of an eight-story Khobar Towers apartment building at Dhahran Air Base, Saudi Arabia. He asked the sentry on watch if everything was OK. Below them, residents in the rooms were settling in for the night. Most were with the 4404th Wing -- protectors of the "no fly zone" in Southern Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch. Some Airmen were writing letters or calling home. Some were playing cards or shooting...

PERU, Ill. -- Two small planes collided in mid-air Sunday morning before the start of the Illinois Valley Air Show here, killing one of the pilots but causing no other injuries, according to authorities. While police and the Federal Aviation Administration said they believed the planes were practicing for the air show, an official with the event's organizer said the pilots were flying their home-built aircraft into Peru to place on display and were not part of the scheduled entertainment. The planes were among four that left Poplar Grove to be displayed at the air show, said J. Michael Maloney,...

BAGHDAD, June 15, 2006 – The attack that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demonstrates the flexibility that air assets give commanders, officials here said today. Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen Hoog, an air planner with Multinational Force Iraq, gave a timeline of the operation that resulted in the death of the most wanted terrorist in Iraq June 7. An F-16 Fighting Falcon jet dropped two precision bombs on a safe house near Baqubah, killing Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser. Nothing indicated this day would be different from any other for Air Force pilots over the country, Hoog said. A flight of...